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Dropping a funding competitors didn’t set Ellen Stofan again — as an alternative, she did a profession pivot, and got here throughout new alternatives.Credit score: NASA/Joel Kowsky
In 2021, planetary scientist Ellen Stofan was appointed undersecretary of science and analysis on the Smithsonian Establishment in Washington DC, the US nationwide analysis and museum complicated. There, she oversees its scientific analysis centres in addition to the Nationwide Air and House Museum, the Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past and the Nationwide Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Earlier than this, she was director of the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Air and House Museum, the place she launched a 7-year restoration of the constructing and oversaw celebrations marking 50 years because the first Moon touchdown. Stofan’s doctoral analysis at Brown College in Windfall, Rhode Island, targeted on the geology of Venus.
Earlier than becoming a member of the Smithsonian, she spent some 25 years working in space-related organizations — together with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and because the company’s chief scientist. She helped to develop NASA’s plan to get people to Mars and labored on the Magellan mission to Venus and the 13-year Cassini mission that documented Saturn and its moons.
Describe a typical day.
My portfolio is basically broad, so there’s no typical day. I is perhaps having a gathering about bringing pandas again to the zoo in Washington DC, or discussing learn how to get rid of the Smithsonian’s assortment of human stays in an moral means. Or speaking concerning the funds — it’s at all times the funds.
Coaching: Persuasive grant writing
Is discussing the funds what you thought you’ll be doing at the beginning of your profession?
In all probability not, however the funds displays the group’s technique and priorities, so you need to perceive why you might be placing cash in sure areas. Talking of priorities, over the previous few years, I’ve been engaged on the Our Shared Future: Life on a Sustainable Planet analysis initiative, which we introduced on the United Nations local weather convention COP 27 two years in the past. What’s superb is the quantity of science we have been already doing alongside these traces. For instance, in Montana, we’ve been recreating the ecosystem of an American prairie — we’ve reintroduced bison, and hastily birds and bugs have began coming again.
Did you propose to work within the museum sector?
I interned on the Air and House Museum once I was an undergraduate, however at the moment I simply wished to be a geologist, write papers and possibly work at a college. A thread by way of my profession is working in nice groups — that was why I loved NASA a lot. To discover Venus or the moons of Saturn, you need to put collectively an engaged workforce by bringing collectively individuals with completely different abilities and concepts. At NASA, I led a workforce that was bidding for a Discovery Program grant, which can be utilized to fund smaller planetary missions utilizing fewer sources and with shorter growth instances. Our proposed mission, the Titan Mare Explorer vessel, would discover the seas of liquid hydrocarbons, similar to methane and ethane, on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Working with the enjoyable, sensible, inventive and progressive individuals on the workforce didn’t really feel like work in any respect. Our mission was one of many three finalists in 2012, however one other one was chosen.
How did that really feel?
Not getting the grant was devastating — not only for me, however for the workforce. I felt like I had allow them to down. For some time, I couldn’t speak concerning the mission with out crying. I considered leaving science, as a result of I didn’t see how something may ever match that.
It took me months to course of all of it. Earlier than our bid, NASA had concluded that no analysis tasks may attain the outer Photo voltaic System for lower than a billion {dollars}. We have been bidding for round US$400 million, and our proposal helped to pioneer the concept, by way of innovation and considered use of know-how, these tasks may very well be executed extra cheaply. Our mission created this small paradigm shift — and, hastily, we noticed individuals proposing tasks that may go to the outer Photo voltaic System at a lot decrease prices than earlier than.
The show of Amelia Earhart’s airplane on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Air and House Museum.Credit score: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Picture/Alamy
What’s your method to profession setbacks?
You need to be the type of one who shrugs off failure — however it’s laborious. Everybody goes by way of it. Once I was nonetheless processing dropping the grant, I used to be invited to interview to be chief scientist of NASA. I bought the job and held that place for 3 years. My profession went an entire completely different means — I left NASA in 2016, after which the Smithsonian job got here up.
Is the Titan Mare mission nonetheless ongoing?
No, however I’m a co-investigator on a mission known as Dragonfly. This drone will launch in late 2026 and can land on Titan within the 2030s. It’s going to fly across the equatorial area, the place we expect standing swimming pools of liquid methane and liquid ethane would possibly exist. There’s a variety of debate within the scientific group proper now about whether or not life may ever exist on a physique like Titan. What we will study ‘prebiotic chemistry’ — the examine of how chemical compounds assembled to kind the precursors to life — from the mission is basically thrilling.
Did you at all times dream of a profession in area exploration?
Not once I was youthful, as a result of my father was an engineer at NASA and the one individuals he labored with have been males — so I simply didn’t suppose it was a spot for me. It was solely by studying in Nationwide Geographic about primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall and palaeoanthropoligst Mary Leakey, who studied human origins in Africa, that I spotted that not solely may girls do science, however they may very well be well-known scientists.
Once I started my profession within the Eighties, I used to be typically both the one lady within the room, or one of many few. And a few individuals thought that I didn’t belong within the room, as a result of I used to be a lady. I had sufficient confidence to suppose, “What’s your drawback?”
Issues have modified rather a lot, however girls are nonetheless under-represented in physics, engineering and laptop science, and we’re not tapping into the expertise. Hiring individuals from teams which are under-represented in science is just not about attaining variety for variety’s sake. We all know from scientific analysis that numerous groups carry out higher.
At NASA, I checked out our workforce and considered whether or not we have been tapping into the perfect expertise. Folks typically discuss variety, however they neglect about inclusion. NASA was delicate to this after the Challenger accident — the area shuttle broke aside seconds after take off in 1986, killing all seven members of the crew. One of many findings was that managers weren’t listening to their groups. It’s vital to create an surroundings during which everybody can contribute and take part. Even when you have a various workforce, in case you don’t make individuals really feel included, they’re not going to remain.
What’s a key precedence for you on the Smithsonian?
Once we have been redoing the museum, one vital a part of our mission was to encourage the following technology of innovators and explorers. Are we telling tales so that each child who comes into the museum, regardless of their race, gender or different side of their life, goes to search out somebody who appears like them?
Previously, the story of area centered charismatic figures, similar to astronaut Neil Armstrong — however have a look at the success of the 2016 film Hidden Figures, which is a few workforce of Black feminine mathematicians working for NASA throughout its early years. Guests would possibly discover that, on the museum, we’re telling a much wider vary of tales. In February, the primary non-public firm, in partnership with NASA, touched down on the Moon; there are actually many extra nations concerned in area exploration, and personal people are going into area. The story of area is altering.
Do you may have a favorite museum exhibit?
We’ve an X-wing fighter from the Star Wars movies, which I completely love. We’ve additionally had the Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek collection.
However my absolute favorite is aviator Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega aeroplane. It’s this cheeky purple color that, to me, symbolizes her saying, ‘I’m going to fly regardless of what anybody thinks.’
Would you ever like to enter area?
Once I went to my first launch, the rocket blew up. It was uncrewed, however it’s seared into my reminiscence. I’m not terribly adventurous. I’m completely satisfied to be an armchair explorer.
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