Alexander, Claudia
Claudia Alexander
Claudia Alexander was a project scientist at the Jet Propulsion lab for NASA in California. She wrote two children’s books on science in her spare time and mentored African American girls. Dr. Alexander had recently done a TED Talk on how to engage the youth in STEM fields. She passed away on July 11, 2015, at 56.
“It’s not just the technical skills that will allow you to get the cool jobs.” - Claudia Alexander, 2006 in APS.
Claudia Alexander was born May 30, 1956, in Vancouver, Canada. Her mother, Gaynelle Justena Williams Alexander, was a corporate librarian at Intel. Her father, Harold Alfred Alexander, was a social worker. She and her two siblings grew up in Santa Clara, California. Know frequently known as Silicon Valley, Dr. Alexander grew up during its transition from a rural agricultural area into a center for high technology. “I was an eyewitness to the changes and excitement of the time,” Dr. Alexander remembered. “My parents were big on engineering. I think growing up there had something to do with my being more receptive to doing something technology-based.” As a child, Dr. Alexander loved writing and dreamed of being a journalist.
Dr. Alexander was invited to intern at NASA Ames Research Center in high school. Though she was there to study engineering, she continuously wandered into the planetary science department. Her boss noticed her interest and sent her to work there. Ames Research Center was Dr. Alexander’s first employer, and she worked there from 1977 until 1983, shaping her interest in becoming a planetary scientist.
Dr. Alexander attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied geophysics. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 198. Following college, Dr. Alexander earned her master’s degree in geophysics and space physics from the University of California Los Angeles in 1985. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1993, earning a degree in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space sciences and focusing on space plasma.
Dr. Alexander worked at the Ames Research Center until 1986, studying plate tectonics and the Jovian moons. In 1986 she joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was a science coordinator working on the plasma wave instrument on the Galileo spacecraft. Dr. Alexander stayed with the project as the project manager until 2003, when Galileo’s mission ended by diving Galileo into Jupiter’s atmosphere. She also worked on the Cassini mission to Saturn.
Dr. Alexander points out that her grades in school were not that great, but she advanced in her career mainly due to help from her mentors. Her high school internship also proved invaluable. Alexander explained, “My internship showed I was capable of doing the job at NASA, and that was important as a minority. I showed that I could do the job very well, and I had good success doing what was technically required” (APS). “Not many people can say they fly spacecraft for a living!” exclaimed Dr. Alexander when asked why she chose to remain with a career in the science field.
Dr. Alexander was a Project Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the “lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system,” managed by the California Institute of Technology. Starting in 2000, Dr. Alexander was a project scientist for NASA’s contributions to Rosetta. Rosetta is a European Space Agency mission studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to land on the comet. Dr. Alexander also worked with NASA’s Deep Space Network to monitor equipment and data related to the Rosetta Project.
Alexander explained that although there is a unique set of requirements for her position, she quickly discovered she had the skills necessary to become a project manager at NASA. “The job has a technical component, so you need to know the science,” she explains, “but you must have interpersonal skills—a special concern for people. Don’t neglect those skills. The ability to argue, to think on your feet all help downstream. It’s not just the technical skills that will allow you to get the cool jobs.”
In 2015, Dr. Alexander gave a TEDx talk, “The Compelling Nature of Locomotion and the Strange Case of Childhood Education.” In 2007, her uncle Jiles Williams created the Claudia Alexander Scholarship to provide need-based scholarships to students at the University of Michigan studying climate, space sciences, and engineering.
Dr. Alexander grew up wanting to be a journalist and continued writing throughout her career. She wrote children’s books, contributing to the “Windows to Adventure” series. She was a member of the Romance Writers of America, wrote science fiction, and wrote for the tennis blog Bleacher Report.
One of the highlights of Dr. Alexander’s career was when she and her Galileo project team purposely crashed the Galileo spacecraft into Jupiter in 2003 to avoid hitting one of Jupiter’s moons. Another highlight was her position as project scientist on the Rosetta project because she was responsible for representing both NASA and the United States on a European mission. “If I’m ungracious, it reflects badly on both NASA and the United States,” Dr. Alexander said. “I enjoy being the representative in that role.” In addition, Dr. Alexander participated on an advisory committee that is part of the National Research Council; she felt incredibly privileged to influence policy.
Dr. Alexander remained in the field because of her job’s unique and exciting nature. “I was really influenced by the Cosmos series with Carl Sagan in the ’70s. It seemed like such a cool thing to be a space explorer,” Alexander commented. “I never thought that it wasn’t something that I wanted to do. I never looked into anything else” (2016).
Dr. Alexander was chairman of the diversity subcommittee of the American Geophysical Union. The AGU is working on a special issue on education concerning diversity in the earth and space sciences. Dr. Alexander explained, “There are many institutions in the U.S. that have never graduated minorities in this area—to the point where you can see yourself in the statistics! The numbers are so small and haven’t moved in decades, which suggests that it is an institutional problem.” The AGU has called for papers and plans to send the issue to all heads and chairs of relevant departments and funding agencies in 2007. “We want to alert the departments,” Dr. Alexander continued. “The pipeline is not empty—kids are coming in but are being driven away. It will be a triumph if we are able to make an impact on how these programs are taught and how minority students are received.”
Dr. Alexander passed away in July 2015 following a 10-year battle with breast cancer. Following her death, her team at the European Space Agency Rosetta project named a gate-like feature on their target comet after her: the C. Alexander Gate.
Dr. Alexander believed that people pick their mentors—people who resonate with you, who think like you. Roberta Johnson, whom she met at UCLA, was one of Dr. Alexander’s great friends and mentors. “When we were in school together, there weren’t many women in the field, and we had to discover what sort of woman scientists we were going to be. Roberta was incredibly inspiring.” Dr. Alexander also mentioned John Matiney, the manager of the Mars Polar Lander Climate Orbiter, from whom she learned a lot about how to manage a project; Jim Erickson from the Galileo Project; and Chris Jones, the director of the Plan Flight Mission as well as her current boss, who she said is fantastic and always accessible. “It’s essential in order to have a successful career to have people give you insider’s clues on how to move forward,” Dr. Alexander said.
Dr. Alexander had a lot of advice for minorities considering a career in science. “My career is tremendously rewarding,” she said. “I feel like a modern-day explorer; the last frontier is space. It’s also a demanding kind of job, where you are absorbed in your work. It is challenging to relationships—be prepared for that. It often doesn’t pay much money, but can also play enormous amounts as well. There are some stuffy individuals in the field and it can be tough, but just stick it out because it is ultimately rewarding” (2016).
Claudia Alexander. N.d. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Alexander Claudia Alexander. https://www.aps.org/careers/physicists/profiles/calexander.cfm
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.
NASA/ESA