1. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an advocate of increasing diversity in science.
26 Facts About Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is of Barbadian descent on her mother's side and Russian-Jewish and Ukrainian-Jewish descent on her father's side.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and astronomy at Harvard College in 2003.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's thesis, "A study of winds in active galactic nuclei", was completed under the supervision of Martin Elvis.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein then earned a master's degree in astronomy in 2005 at the University of California, Santa Cruz, working with Anthony Aguirre.
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In 2006, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein changed research directions and ultimately moved to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics to work with Lee Smolin.
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In 2010, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein completed her doctoral dissertation, titled "Cosmic acceleration as Quantum Gravity Phenomenology", under the supervision of Lee Smolin and Niayesh Afshordi at the University of Waterloo, while conducting her research at the Perimeter Institute.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's research has focused on various topics in cosmology and theoretical physics, including the axion as a dark matter candidate, inflation, and classical and quantum fields in the early universe.
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At MIT, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein worked in Alan Guth's group in the Center for Theoretical Physics.
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In 2016, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein worked as Ann Nelson's postdoc at the University of Washington.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein earned the Barbados House Canada Inc Gordon C Bynoe Scholarship in 2007.
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In March 2017, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein won the LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award "For Years of Dedicated Effort in Changing Physics Culture to be More Inclusive and Understanding Toward All Marginalised Peoples".
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein was recognized by Essence Magazine as one of 15 Black Women Who are Paving the Way in STEM and Breaking Barriers.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an advocate for increasing the diversity within science by considering intersectionality and proper celebration of the underrepresented groups who contribute to scientific knowledge production.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has been a member of the executive committee of the National Society of Black Physicists.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has contributed popular science articles for Scientific American, Slate, American Scientist, Nature Astronomy, Bitch media, and Physics World.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is on the Book Review Board of Physics Today and was editor-in-chief of The Offing.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a monthly contributor to New Scientist, with a column titled "Field Notes from Space-time," and a contributing columnist for Physics World.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein authored a note on the Particles for Justice page titled "What I wanted when I called for a Strike for Black Lives".
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In 2022, NASA released a report of an investigation, in response to Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's claims, based on an examination of more than 50,000 documents.
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In December 2022, The New York Times published an article by Michael Powell suggesting that Chanda Prescod-Weinstein employed false ad hominem attacks in an attempt to discredit Hakeem Oluseyi, an astrophysicist who did initial research debunking the claims against James Webb.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein worked with two research assistants for two years to form a database of all professional publications by Black women with PhDs in physics-related disciplines, which was released in December 2022.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein said she drew inspiration from the Cite Black Women movement on social media.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has in the past been a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Advisory council.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein served as the Chairperson of Jews of Color and Allies Advisory Group of Reconstructing Judiaism, the umbrella organization of Reconstructionist Judaism, and served on its board of governors.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is the daughter of author and activist Margaret Prescod and labor activist Sam Weinstein.