Wanda Díaz-Merced Explained

Birth Place:Gurabo, Puerto Rico[1]
Citizenship:United States
Fields:Astronomer
Workplaces:European Gravitational Observatory
Thesis Title:Sound for the exploration of space physics data
Thesis Url:http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5804/
Thesis Year:2013
Doctoral Advisor:Stephen Brewster
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Wanda Díaz-Merced is a Puerto Rican astronomer known for using sonification to turn large data sets into audible sound. Currently at the European Gravitational Observatory Cascina, Italy, Wanda is the Director of the Arecibo Observatory. While losing her eyesight, Wanda brought attention to increasing equality of access to astronomy and using audible sound to study astrophysical data.. Wanda is a part of the 7 most trailblazing women in science by the BBC.[2]

Early life

Díaz-Merced was born in Gurabo, a small town in Puerto Rico. Both Diaz-Merced and her sister had physical disabilities, Wanda being blind, and had to learn to overcome the challenges that came. As children, the two of them would pretend to fly a spacecraft and explore other galaxies.

She entered the school science fair in middle school, where she won second place. This was a turning point for her as it made her realize that pursuing a career in science might be attainable.[3]

Díaz-Merced lost her sight in her early twenties due to complications with degenerative diabetic retinopathy and found new ways to study stellar radiation without relying on her vision.[4] She realized that she could use her ears to detect patterns in stellar radio data that could potentially be obscured in visual and graphical representation.[5]

Education

Díaz-Merced attended Matías González García Middle School and Dra. Conchita Cuevas High School in Gurabo, Puerto Rico.[6] She then went on to study physics at the University of Puerto Rico.[7] She received an internship with Robert Candey at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA after she finished her undergraduate degree.[8] She went on to receive a doctorate in computer science from the University of Glasgow in 2013, where she studied space data analysis.[9] She was then accepted as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. and South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town[10]

Scientific career

In 2020, Díaz-Merced accepted a simultaneous collaboration with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the European Gravitational Observatory proposal REINFORCE.[11] Before this, she worked at the National Astronomical Observatory Japan (NAOJ), and the South African observatory's Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD). She has led the OAD project AstroSense since April 2014.[3] [12] She worked on the technique after she lost her sight as an undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico.[13] In 2016, she gave a TED Talk in Vancouver, BC, Canada.[14] She is a member of the International Astronomical Union.[15] While working at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, she collaborated with Gerhard Sonnert on a music album based on her audio representations.[16] Composed by Volkmar Studtrucker, "X-Ray Hydra" includes nine pieces of music derived from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory rendered as sound.[17] [18]

Honors

In 2011, Diaz-Merced won one of Google's first annual European Scholarship for Students with Disabilities. This scholarship recognizes outstanding Ph.D. students doing exceptional research in the field of computer science.[19]

Diaz-Merced was awarded in 2017, an Estrella Luike trophy.[20]

Published works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hendrix. Susan. Summer Intern from Puerto Rico Has Sunny Perspective. Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA. 6 October 2017.
  2. News: 2017-11-06 . 100 Women: Seven trailblazing women in science . 2020-10-14 . BBC News . en-GB.
  3. News: This Blind Boricua Astrophysicist Pioneered a Revolutionary Way to Study Stars Through Sound. Simón. Yara. 2016. Remezcla. 2017-10-05. en-US.
  4. Castelvecchi. Davide. 2021-08-30. Using sound to explore events of the Universe. Nature. en. 597. 7874. 144. 10.1038/d41586-021-02347-3. 34462597 . 2021Natur.597..144C . 239691698 .
  5. Web site: Merced. Wanda Diaz. Wanda Diaz Merced Speaker TED. 2020-07-12. www.ted.com. en.
  6. Web site: Listening to the whispers from the stars. Gonzalez-Espada. Wilson Javier. 2013-10-01. Ciencia Puerto Rico. en. 2019-11-01.
  7. News: La astrofísica ciega que escucha a las estrellas. Hernández. Isaac. 2017-06-16. El País. 2019-11-01. es. 1134-6582.
  8. Web site: Wanda Díaz-Merced Royal Society. 2020-07-12. royalsociety.org. en-gb.
  9. Sound for the exploration of space physics data - PhD thesis. Diaz Merced. Wanda L.. 2013. University of Glasgow. PhD .
  10. News: Johnson . Lisa . February 18, 2016 . Blind astrophysicist listens to the stars by turning data into sound . CBC News.
  11. Gibney. Elizabeth. 2020-06-03. REINFORCE Project Handbook Including quality guidelines and ethical guidelines.
  12. Web site: Wanda Diaz-Merced Introductions Necessary. Goad. Angela. 2016-09-13. Introductions Necessary [podcast]. en-US. 2019-11-01.
  13. Web site: Making Astronomy Accessible for the Visually Impaired. Díaz-Merced. Wanda. September 22, 2014. Scientific American blog.
  14. Web site: How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars. 27 June 2016 . TED. May 11, 2018.
  15. Web site: Astronomer Wanda Diaz Merced Uses Physics and Technology to Expand Accessibility to the Universe. Englard. Kit. 2019-05-26. Femme De Chem. en-US. 2019-11-01.
  16. News: Wanda Diaz Merced: How Can We Hear The Stars? . 2017-10-04 . NPR.org . en.
  17. Web site: X-Ray Hydra - Volkmar Studtrucker. www.volkmar-studtrucker.de. 2019-11-01.
  18. Web site: Star Songs: X-ray to Music. Sonnert. Gerhard. 2012. www.cfa.harvard.edu. 2019-11-01.
  19. Web site: NASA - Summer Intern from Puerto Rico Has Sunny Perspective. 2020-07-12. www.nasa.gov. en.
  20. Web site: Trofeo Estrella Luike a una invidente estudiosa de las constelaciones. August 2, 2017. Spanish. LUIKE Iberoamericana de Revistas. May 9, 2018.

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