Joan Feynman
| Joan Feynman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 31, 1927 Queens, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Science Foundation, Boston College, Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Alma mater |
Oberlin College Syracuse University |
| Doctoral advisor | Melvin Lax |
| Known for | Work on auroras, solar wind |
| Notable awards | NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal |
Joan Feynman (born March 31, 1927) is an American astrophysicist. She has made important contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields; sun-Earth relations; and magnetospheric physics. In particular, Feynman is known for developing an understanding of the origin of auroras. She is also known for creating a model that predicts the number of high-energy particles likely to hit a spacecraft over its lifetime, and for uncovering a method for predicting sun spot cycles. Feynman is the younger sister of physicist Richard Feynman.
Feynman was raised in Far Rockaway section of Queens, New York City, along with her older brother, Richard Feynman. Her parents were Lucille Feynman (née Phillips), a homemaker, and Melville Arthur Feynman, a businessman. Her family originated from Russia and Poland; both of her parents were Ashkenazi Jews. Like her brother, Joan was an inquisitive child, and she exhibited an interest in understanding the natural world from an early age. However, her mother and grandmother both dissuaded her from pursuing science, since they believed that women's brains were not physically capable of understanding complex scientific concepts in the way that men's brains could. Despite this, her brother Richard always encouraged her to be curious about the universe. It was he who originally introduced young Joan to auroras when, one night, he coaxed her out of bed to witness the northern lights flickering above an empty golf course near their home. Later, Feynman would find comfort in an astronomy book given to her by her brother. She became convinced that she could, in fact, study science, when she came across a graph based on research by noted astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.
Feynman earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College. She later attended Syracuse University, where she studied solid state theory in the physics department under Melvin Lax. During her graduate years, Feynman took a year off to live in Guatemala, where she studied the anthropology of the Maya peoples who lived there. Feynman eventually earned her doctorate in physics in 1958. Her thesis was on the "absorption of infrared radiation in crystals of diamond-type lattice structure." She also completed postdoctoral work at Columbia University.
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