In high school, she took some Advanced Placement classes, and was in the marching and concert bands. Dr. Brown started taking a physics course, but quit early on because she felt like she wasn't learning anything. She graduated from high school as class valedictorian. Science still fascinated her, and she was into anything that had to do with space. She thought that actually being out in space would be the coolest thing possible, and so decided she wanted to become an astronaut.
Next for Dr. Brown came Howard University in Washington, DC. She began studying physics and a little astronomy, while participating in the "Showtime" marching band. While at Howard, Dr. Brown was able to do a couple of summer internships at the Goddard Space Flight Center, gaining experience in doing research. One of her professors learning of her desire to be an astronaut, made her research about what it takes to become an astronaut and what it is like to be in space. She discovered that her near-sighted vision would hurt her chances of being an astronaut. Dr. Brown also discovered that being in cramped quarters didn't sound that appealing to her. Her love of astronomy continued, however. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Howard, receiving a BS in Astrophysics in 1991, and remained at there for another year in the physics graduate program.
At that point, she was really much more a physics major than an astronomy major, but decided to pursue astronomy as a career.
So, she left Howard university to attend the University of Michigan, entering the doctoral program in the Department of Astronomy. While there, Dr. Brown was extremely active, teaching some labs, co-creating a short course on astronomy, observing at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (in Arizona), presenting at several conferences, and working at a science museum which had a planetarium. Along with all her activities, she managed to receive a Master's degree in Astronomy in 1994, then go on to finish her thesis (on elliptical galaxies). On December 20, 1998 she received her Ph.D., the first African-American woman to obtain a doctorate in astronomy from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan.
After receiving her doctorate, Dr. Brown returned to Goddard as a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council post-doctoral research associate. In that position, she continued her thesis work on X-ray emission from galaxies. When the post-doc position ended, she became an employee of Goddard, where she is an astrophysicist. She works within the center's National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), which is a part of the Space Science Data Operations Office.
Dr. Beth A. Brown's job consists of three main parts—data acquisition, research, and outreach. As a data acquisition scientist, she has responsibilities for the astrophysics data that the NSSDC holds. She is the person who acts as a bridge between the NSSDC's astrophysics archive and other science archive research centers. Her research is on the environment of elliptical galaxies, many of which shine brightly in the X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This means that there is very hot (about 10 million degrees) material in these galaxies. For this work, she uses data from the ROSAT X-ray satellite and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date.
She loves to do things involving educational outreach. One of the outreach projects she is working on, with several people, is the Multiwavelength Milky Way project. This is an effort to make data on our home galaxy accessible to educators, students, and the general public. For the project, she works on web pages, and also appear in the Milky Way video.
Dr. Brown says, "I still like science, because I am still curious about how something works and why something exists. Space continues to fascinate me. I love my job because I get to work on several different things, and there's always something new being discovered! I continue to participate in various conferences such as the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meetings and the National Society of Black Physicists (I served for two years as the Administrative Executive Officer for NSBP). I have also been involved with the National Conference of Black Physics Students (NCBPS) for many years. Sometimes (as with any job) things can get frustrating. But I surround myself with supportive friends and family who help me to get through the tough times. And I also maintain a life outside of work, which keeps me balanced."
