UCI Professor Aomawa Shields’ newly published sequel to Inside Higher Ed article, “Claiming a Louder Life: Part II”  is now available.

UCI Professor Aomawa Shields’ newly published Inside Higher Ed article,  “Claiming a Louder Life: Part I,” is now available. The article discusses the treatment of Black students further along the academic pipeline, at the college level in departments of physics and astronomy.

UCI Professor Aomawa Shields is featured in “The Limit Does Not Exist” Podcast,” episode 111: “Star Power,” which presents a discussion of Professor Shields’ transitions between the world of acting and that of astronomy, and how she has found herself in the space between worlds. 

UCI Professor Aomawa Shields is featured in Adler Planetarium’s Online Exhibit “Life on Other Worlds.” An exhibit which is about the search for life and covers astrobiology/SETI on Earth, in the solar system, and outside the solar system, Professor Shields’ exoplanet climate work is included in this exhibit. 

UCI Professor Aomawa Shields is featured in award-winning author Tonya Bolden’s book, Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM. A book that features groundbreaking black women who are pioneering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields throughout the United States.

Professor Aomawa Shields is honored to be one of the 12 women highlighted in Teen Vogue’s article about working to build an inclusive and welcoming environment for women to thrive in STEM fields.

“When I returned to astronomy after leaving the field for over a decade to pursue acting as a career, I thought I had to downplay and hide my background in the arts. A mentor told me to view my theater background as my superpower. She was right. It totally is! It helps me to communicate the results of my research in ways that are unique and engaging to a broad range of audiences.

It took me a long time to let myself be who I am — which is someone who absolutely loves makeup and fashion — and do science. I realized that if I bought into my own limiting belief that I couldn’t be myself and do what I loved, I was the one who was going to suffer and miss out on the chance to fulfill my wildest dreams of studying the universe and communicating the wonders of the universe to the world. I didn’t want to miss that chance. …No human being gets to tell me what I’m supposed to do (or not supposed to do) with my life. I am what a scientist looks like. And so are you.”

Original article: Apollo 11 Moon Landing 50th Anniversary

Professor Aomawa Shields shares her nontraditional career path to becoming an Astronomer.

https://www.facebook.com/NOVApbs/videos/253867345266434/

“Set out to study space––and then spent over a decade acting in Hollywood. Today, as an exoplanet astronomer at the University of California, Irvine, Aomawa Shields is exploring whether life could exist on faraway worlds.”

Three faculty from the UCI School of Physical Sciences have received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development Awards to support their research, which also includes educational programs for middle school through college-age students.

The 2018 winners are assistant professors Franklin Dollar, Aomawa Shields and Tom Trogdon.

Aomawa Shields, Ph.D., the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor also in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $687,418 for the five year grant on her project titled CAREER: Bridging Theory and Observations of Habitable Worlds and Building a Bridge to Astronomy and Astrobiology for Underrepresented Middle-School Girls.

“I couldn’t be more honored to receive this NSF awards as it means we will break new ground globally in both science and education,” Shields shared. “We will be able to execute an interdisciplinary, multi-tiered research program bridging theory and observations of potentially habitable planets, and involve students and postdoctoral scholars in our efforts to target planets with the best prospects for hosting life in our corner of the Galaxy.”

Original Story: https://ps.uci.edu/node/49768

The NASA Habitable Worlds Program has selected the proposal, “The effect of salt- and land-albedo feedback on the climate and habitability of M-dwarf planets” (PI Aomawa Shields, UC Irvine) for funding beginning in fiscal year 2017.

With this funding, covering fiscal years 2017-2020, Shields, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Irvine, will lead a research team of postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the exploration of the radiative effects on climate and habitability of a wide range of surface types possible on planets orbiting small, cool, red, M-dwarf stars. Shields’ group will apply these results to create the most accurate assessments of the likelihood of the most exciting potentially habitable planets to actually possess the conditions necessary for life.

Original Story: https://news.uci.edu/2017/10/23/uci-astronomer-wins-nasa-grant-to-study-exoplanets/