Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Ada Lovelace Day, Again


I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last Ada Lovelace Day. Phil Hilliker reminded me this morning, so I've decided to rerun my post from last year.

As Cory Doctorow puts it, Ada Lovelace Day is "the day that bloggers all over the world post about women in science as part of a global day of awareness and appreciation for the (often underreported) role that women play in the sciences." I love women in science (or at least one particular woman in science), and I'm a huge fan of awareness, so I'm blogging about my wife, Marie.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, she's an astrophysicist. That's her, second from the left, in a photo by Gaelen Marsden. Marie is here depicted in Antarctica in 2006, where she and her team built a telescope and launched it on a balloon to the edge of space to search the infrared spectrum for signs of star formation in the early universe. She was there for two months. Why yes, as a matter of fact she is cooler than your wife. That's nice of you to mention it.

7 comments:

Phil said...

Thanks for the notice. Women in science are the best!

Zach Kline said...

Oh YEAH!! Well, I don't even have a wife!!! So take that!! hahaha....How do you meet an astrophysicist? Not to pry into your personal life, but when I hear the occupation astrophysicist I think of a brand of person that is inaccessible, no disrespect intended. BTW, great stuff...very inspirational to me... I saw you last year at UARTS!!! I was the weird guy hogging your sketchbook! haha.

Adam Rex said...

Phil–you know it, bro! (Internet high-five)

Zach–Marie was a friend of a friend. So I guess I met her the same way anyone meets anyone–I don't think it's any harder with the astrophysicists.

Danielle Ceccolini said...

Astrophysicist Mrs Rex gets double thumbs up for being an extra cool-extra smart-successful woman.
I totally just got my inspiration for the day. Tell her I said thanks :)

Núria Coe said...

Hey there!
Do you remember when you came to the SCBWI Western Washington's Annual Conference? (I am the Nuria Coe that won the drawing? Ya know, when John Scieszka said you won it but then you read my name? Oh heck I guess it was a highlight for ME)

Well, anyway this past weekend we had our conference again, at the same venue, and we got to meet, (among many wonderful authors and agents and editors) Peter Brown, of Chowder and The Flight Of The Dodo and The Curious Garden fame. Well, whaddayaknow? his DAD was an astrophysicist too! Coincidence? I guess you should find out for yourselves. Next time you go to NY you should try to hook up with him. I think you guys have a lot more in common than the average bird...

And yes, sir, your wife is WAY cooler than mine. ;)
Cheers!

Adam Rex said...

I remember that episode in Washington, Nuria, though I hadn't remembered the name. Hi!

Peter's a nice guy, isn't he? We're acquainted, though I didn't know about his dad. Maybe I'll see him next month at BEA.

Núria Coe said...

I was just kidding, I did not expect you to remember my name. There were around 400 people there!

Yeah, he is quite the nice guy. Made a lot of new fans, that's for sure.

By the way, when is your Fat Vampire novel coming out? Jordan Brown of HarperCollins was really excited about it.