James Webb Space Telescope chief scientist Jane Rigby receives highest US civilian award

Fades, 9 days ago

It’s so great to have a president that respects science again

ameancow, 10 days ago

Oh goodie, the same award given to other such pioneers of the human frontier like… checks notes Rush Limbaugh.

Fades, 9 days ago

Yeah but who cares?? Science is back to a position of respect and value, forget about the fascists’ attempts to muddy those waters

dudinax, 9 days ago

And Michelle Yeoh for some reason

greedytacothief, 9 days ago

Well at least this time it’s better

ech, 10 days ago

While awesome, would it be out of scope to award it to everyone on the team? I’m sure there were plenty of additional people who’s efforts were critical to the mission’s success.

NocturnalMorning, 10 days ago

This is how that stuff works. Us lowly engineers doing the actual work day to day rarely get recognition for our contributions to this stuff.

catloaf, 9 days ago

Looks like this medal is only awarded to individuals, so yes it would be out of scope. Really it’s awarded not only for the JWST, but because she’s also done work to advance women and LGBTQ+ people in science. The reading of the citation is excluded from the meeting transcript, but I’m sure you can hear it in a full video.

But they did give it to the senior scientist and not like the mission director or something.

I went to look up who that was, but apparently the position is empty? Seems they’re accepting applications: aas.org/jobregister/ad/603bb6ef

Edit: actually I think that job is the operational mission director. I was thinking more of the NASA launch mission director. Apparently it’s such a complex project there are a bunch of those roles.