10/14/2024
๐โจ ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ด๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ๐' ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฐ โจ๐
Today, we honor the immense contributions of native communitiesโnot only to the cultural fabric of our world but also to breakthroughs in STEM and Materials Science.
As we celebrate Native peoples' legacy as scientific innovators, we wanted to highlight just a few of the many inspiring Native American researchers and engineers throughout the last century:
- ๐๐ก๐ค๐ฎ ๐ผ๐๐ฃ๐๐จ ๐๐๐ (of the Tewa Pueblo) worked on the Manhattan project and pioneered biomedical research into the physical effects of radiation exposure on human chromosomes.
- ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐ฎ (of the Navajo Nation) had a nearly 30-year tenure researching thermonuclear fusion in the Los Alamos National Laboratory's laser program, following his work with NASA's high-energy gamma ray project.
- ๐๐๐ง๐ฎ ๐๐ค๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ค๐จ๐จ (of the Cherokee Nation) helped design early, top-secret spacecraft that would later pave the way for NASA's Apollo missions.
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๐๐ง๐ง๐ฎ ๐พ. ๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฉ (of the Osage and Cherokee Nations) would serve on those Apollo missions as a Flight Mission Operations Engineer, where he played a critical role in bringing the Apollo 13 crew safely home after the explosion of an oxygen tank famously aborted the mission.
These exceptional individuals are only a small sampling of the Native American trailblazers in STEM fields across history and today. We hope you'll join us to take today to learn, listen, celebrate, and support indigenous voices, science, and innovation now and always.