#WebbTelescopeWomen Gillian Wright
Gillian Wright, European Principal Investigator for Webb’s MIRI Instrument and Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre
What is your role in Webb?
As the MIRI European Principal Investigator, I lead the European part of the MIRI instrument for Webb.
Why are you excited about Webb?
It will open new ways to study the Universe, and that will lead to exciting discoveries. We will see things that we currently don’t know exist, and it will change our understanding of how planets, stars and galaxies form and evolve. I’ve always been excited and interested in the way new instruments and technologies lead to discoveries in astronomy. The MIRI instrument on Webb is so much more powerful than anything we’ve had before so I am looking forward to that amazing thrill when you realise the data are showing something new and unexpected.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
It is hard to choose just one. For me MIRI is a real highlight – getting it accepted as one of the instruments on the mission, working with a team of excellent scientists and engineers from across Europe and the USA to design and develop it, and now planning all of the exciting science we will do. It will be an even better highlight when the mission launches. Being appointed as the Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre is another huge highlight of course!
Who inspired you during your career, and how?
The generations of women astronomers before me who were great pioneers, opening up diversity and breaking glass ceilings are important role models. Jocelyn Bell Burnell gave an exciting, inspiring, talk about her work at the very first meeting I ever attended at the start of my PhD studentship. It was fun and gave all the new students an idea of what it is like to do scientific research, and enthusiasm to get started. Catherine Cesarsky’s leadership in infrared astronomy and for ESA’s ISO mission, where she was the first female PI of an instrument on an ESA mission, is a great inspiration for me. Some of the discoveries made with ISO are the basis of the science that my team will do using MIRI on Webb, so her work has a direct scientific connection to MIRI.
What advice could you offer to young people thinking of pursuing a career in STEM?
Just go for it and follow your interests! Don’t be afraid to take opportunities when they arise even if they are not exactly what you planned. You will find lots of interesting and exciting opportunities to work with talented, creative people.
The 2021 International Women’s Day theme is “Choose to Challenge”. What are the biggest challenges you’ve fought to overcome in your career?
One of the big challenges was the views and opinions about what women could achieve in science that were especially common in the 1970s and 80s when I was studying and starting my career. For example, at school, physics was a very unusual choice of specialism for a girl, so I had to be determined and my mum had to deal with the teachers, even although I was one of the top students!
I’ve found that while there are both blatant and unconscious biases about women as scientists and leaders, there are also always people who are good to work with and those who value diverse approaches. Different views and debate, exploring all the angles, is what makes science thrive.
Space science is a challenge, and an enjoyable one. What we do is complicated and not easy, if it was easy there would be lots of Webb missions already done! There are interesting new challenges waiting for me every day.
