Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Editor's Picks
Editor's PicksTechnology

Jedidah Isler is the First Black Woman to Receive a PhD in Astrophysics from Yale

Posted byBy Ricky Riley | Published on: CommentsComments (0)
Jedidah Isler

Jedidah Isler

Jedidah Isler became the first Black woman to receive a PhD in the field of astrophysics from Yale University in 2014.

In her academic career, she has focused her energy on researching black holes and blazars, or blazing quasars. Last year, Isler completed her award-winning study that examines the physics of particle jets emanating from black holes at the centers of distant galaxies. This study made her a star in the world of astrophysics.

“I look at the data. I plot the intensity of light vs its wavelength. We measure how much intensity is produced at each wavelength. There’s a characteristic two-peaked spectrum… You get to measure time variability. Did the peaks go up or down together or independently? If they don’t go up and down together, it’s very unlikely you have co-spatial emissions,” says Isler in an interview with Wired.com.

In just a few years, she has began to use her platform and success story to inspire young women of color to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Isler has been a TED fellow and hosted her own TED Talk. She was also a Syracuse University Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow this year.

Currently, Isler serves as a National Science 16655097089_e2c08dbba9_oFoundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University. She also is involved with the Future Faculty Leader program at Harvard University’s Center for Astrophysics. In addition to her work in academia, she serves as a member on the American Astronomical Society committee on the status of minorities in astronomy that aims at addressing the diversity issues in many STEM careers.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top