Nicole Gugliucci, Ph.D.
Physics
“Turns out what I like most about science is sharing it with other people. Teaching it, and sharing it with others. … It’s important to me that everyone can feel some connection to science and see that it is understandable, it is reachable, it is even doable.”
Your focus is astronomy—do you remember your first experience viewing the stars?
Someone bought me this tiny red Tasco Telescope, and we put it on the hood of the car, and we looked at the moon, I think I was 5, and it was so cool. I grew up in Staten Island, N.Y., where there isn’t that much sky viewing, and I just really loved it.
Was that when you knew you wanted to be an astronomer?
I always loved science, and always wanted to be a scientist, but I came back around to astronomy when I was in high school. I saw the movie Contact with Jodi Foster—the telescopes and those headphones—I thought that was so cool, and that was a turning point for me. The fact that I wound up in radio astronomy, and even worked at one of the observatories in the movie, that was cool.
What are you working on right now that you’re really excited by?
I’m working with a project called Radio JOVE, which brings together my radio astronomy background and my recent work in science education and citizen science. It’s a project developed by NASA that calls upon citizen scientists and amateur scientists to build a simple antenna out of copper wire that monitors solar (radio) bursts from the sun and Jupiter. We’re trying to harness more citizen scientists (anyone doing science, but not doing it professionally). From a research point of view, I’m also looking at how participation in the project affects how people feel about their own identity in relation to science—do you feel like you’re doing science, and do you feel effective?
Why is citizen science important?
Turns out what I like most about science is sharing it with other people. Teaching it, and sharing it with others. Citizen science is a way for people to participate in a process that may seem foreign to a lot of people, and it can be very technical. It’s important to me that everyone can feel some connection to science and see that it is understandable, it is reachable, it is even doable. For astronomy, it’s great because so many people are in love with the night sky, but they don’t go into a career in science—this allows them to participate and make an impact.
You were recently on a panel at DragonCon—an annual pop culture convention featuring science fiction. How does science fiction and your work overlap?
A lot of people come to science through science fiction—I went the other way. I was into science and then discovered science fiction—but many people share those interests. I’ve been part of DragonCon programming since 2011, and we’re making a concerted effort to make science as accessible as possible to show a wide range of people who do science. Science fiction, and science communication are entry points for people, it doesn’t have to be intimidating, you can have fun with it.
You describe yourself as an all-around geek. What makes you a geek?
I’ve always loved science, I like figuring things out, playing with computers, and I love Star Trek. But what being a geek means to me is having passion for some topic and sharing that topic with people. And that really resonates with me.
When not teaching, where can we find you?
Watching Star Trek on the couch with my spouse and our dogs. But it’s a tie between Deep Space Nine and Lower Decks.
