Activists Around the World: Wanda Diaz Merced

Today we cover the journey and works of astronomer and scientist Wanda Diaz Merced.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Okay, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome stuff. I
never told your production I heard you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another activist around the world. And we
are jumping into Disability Pride Month with a woman who
has made amazing progress for equality and access in the
science world. We are talking about scientists, astrophysicists, astronomer Wanda
Diaz merceb So. She was born in Gurabo, a small
town in Puerto Rico. Diez Merced has always had an

(00:41):
interest in space. She and her sister would often pretend
they would explore different galaxies flying around space, and she
herself had been diagnosed with diabetes at a young age
and her sister was not able to leave her bed
due to her disability, but that didn't stop them from
adventuring beyond the bedroom, which I love. I love that

(01:02):
idea that they had times together where they explored space
through their imagination. And her curiosity was encouraged by her
family to study different sciences, even helping her to get
second place in her middle school science fair, which encouraged
her to pursue her love for science. Her dad and
she would go on ventures, and she has talked about

(01:24):
the fact that she saw shooting stars, which was so
beautiful to her and fascinating in her want to learn
more about that. She went on to study at the
University of Puerto Rico, and this is when her story
became a bit more complicated. So this is from the
w NYIL dot org article. Quote, she had started to

(01:46):
lose her eyesight as a teenager, and by the time
she graduated from secondary school, she was totally blind. Quote
I couldn't even see what the professor was writing on
the board, and I obviously couldn't read books anymore. She
recalls referring to a critical period in her life when
she almost gave up everything, and it was during this
time she felt she had to make a decision quit
or move past this and move forward no matter what,

(02:08):
and she did just that. A friend at the time
showed her a different way of studying beyond just sight.
So this is from royalsite dot org. She spent her
childhood in teenage years fascinated by science and wanting to
become a doctor because quote, that was the way I
thought you used science until one day at university when
a friend knocked her completely off course. He saw me

(02:29):
in the corridor and said, hey, you need to come
hear this. He was doing a NASA outreach project and
played me a live audio of a sunburst, a huge
ejection of energy from the Sun that reaches detectors on
the ground. It was inspiring. I could hear the sun
in real time, and when the sun burst finished, I
could hear the galactic background. For Wanda, whose sight was

(02:51):
fading fast, this solo soundscape gave her a completely new
direction with the exciting prospect of using her remain senses
to study space. So with the experience of soonification, Diasmer said,
stepped into a different lane of science, digging deeper into
the world of astrophysics, which I've heard of the term soonification,

(03:12):
but I never really understood what it was. Andy, did
you know what this was?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
I feel like I have a vague idea of it,
but I could be totally your own.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well. For clarification, BBC dot co dot UK explains it
this way. While visualization might convey information using a graph
force example, soonification presents it as sound. One simple example
of this is a Geiger counter, the increase of clicks
of which denote the presence of raised levels of radiation.
In cosmology, Sotification can replicate multiple data streams. The ear's

(03:43):
ability to differentiate between sounds eg. Listening to an orchestral
piece of music where there's policity of sound is even
more dynamic than visualization, meaning that this method can represent
things that are missed by information shown a laptop screen,
for example. So literally, how you hear it, how much
you hear it, how it collects is what they're talking about.

(04:03):
And the use of soonification has been around since the
nineteen thirties but was not being used at this time.
So though they had it, they weren't using it. And
it was Dias marcetz creation of certification software that made
the technique where it is today and how she's able
to make history in astrophysics, so we love everything about this.
She would soon go on to receive different internships and programs,

(04:27):
including with Roger Candy at the NASA Goddards Base Flight Center,
which was a huge step in her career. Back to
that Royal Society article they write, Bobby taking me on
was really an active trust. I didn't have the required
grades or experience, and I felt like the other students
were talking in tongues. I grabbed his hand and told
him I didn't know anything, but he just said, I'm

(04:47):
not worried. With a support of mentor, Wanda's confidence and
abilities increased. Together, they created prototype technology to analyze astronomical
data that had been converted into sound. What happened with
Bobby is that I I had the opportunity of analyzing
my first data set, using my own way to explore
the data. That really empowered me. It brought me to think,

(05:07):
this is something I can do. I don't have to
sit in a corner thinking of something I can do
as a scientist. And that something is something she's hoped
for for other people with disabilities. From magicenter dot Com,
they write, I don't want people with disabilities to have
to pass through everything I had to pass through in
order to contribute as part of the mainstream. One ideas

(05:28):
merceus determination and brave pursuit of her passion has opened
the doors for a more diverse and accessible scientific community.
As she says, science is for everyone. It has to
be available to everyone because we are all natural explorers.
And again, I love seeing stuff like that, because I did.
When I mentioned this to other people, I'm like, oh,
we're about to talk about astrophysicists an astronomer who's blind.

(05:52):
They're like, wait, what, No, that can't be a thing.
And understanding that she created tools and had something that
had been accessible long time ago but brought it back
so that she could be a part of this community
is phenomenal and kind of said that it took this
long and it took hurt having to do this for
this to be accessible to her. So with that she

(06:13):
would go on to make history in her work, getting
her PhD in computer science at the University of Glasgow,
then going on to hold positions at the Harvard Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics and the South African Astronomical Observatory. I
believe she also worked at an observatory in Japan, So
she is international and she's been given accolades for her work,

(06:34):
including the Estrella Luke Trophy in twenty seventeen. And this
is her advice to younger generations. She says, my advice
to young people would be to remember that outstanding people
do not become great overnight. They have to keep focused
until they become victors in their mission. Not giving up
is really hard, but just keep moving forward, find good
mentors and be a good mentee. And I think that

(06:55):
we talk about how often, yes, the success isn't there
without people really belie leaving that we can do it
and helping us to go beyond the obstacles that we
often think are there. So I'd love to see this.
If you want to go and listen to more about
her words, there's podcast on her. She's published books about
her works as well, which we probably should put in

(07:16):
our own lists, because you know, that's what we do.
But it's amazing to see her her accomplishments and her
continuing forward and being an example and being a mentor
for others who might feel like maybe it wasn't accessible
to them, but it really is. So we love to
see that and we are excited to see more of
her works.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yes, I was very excited when you said who we're
going to be talking about. I'm definitely going to be
looking into those books for sure. Well, listeners, if you
have any thoughts or suggestions, we would love to hear
from you. You can email us at Hello at Stuffwever
Told You dot com. You can find us on Blue Skype,

(07:58):
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our super producers Chanler, Casey and Rima, and our executive
producer Maya. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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(08:19):
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