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The Weather Expert Who Answered the $64,000 Question

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Manage episode 489631166 series 3300125
Content provided by Lost Women of Science. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Lost Women of Science or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

In the mid-1940s, a teenage June Bacon-Bercey saw the image of a nuclear explosion on the cover of Time magazine and immediately had questions. How would the particles in the mushroom cloud move through the air? What effect would this have on our atmosphere? To find the answers, she set out to study atmospheric science, just as the field of meteorology was coming of age.

Her career would take her to places few Black women had gone before: the Atomic Energy Commission as a senior researcher; a TV news station in Buffalo, New York, as an on-air meteorologist; and even a TV game show. As a Black woman entering a STEM career at the height of the Civil Rights movement, June’s goal was always to be a role model for women and people of color. And she marched through life to the tune of her favourite composer, John Philip Sousa, who just happened to help her answer the $64,000 question.

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123 episodes

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Manage episode 489631166 series 3300125
Content provided by Lost Women of Science. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Lost Women of Science or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

In the mid-1940s, a teenage June Bacon-Bercey saw the image of a nuclear explosion on the cover of Time magazine and immediately had questions. How would the particles in the mushroom cloud move through the air? What effect would this have on our atmosphere? To find the answers, she set out to study atmospheric science, just as the field of meteorology was coming of age.

Her career would take her to places few Black women had gone before: the Atomic Energy Commission as a senior researcher; a TV news station in Buffalo, New York, as an on-air meteorologist; and even a TV game show. As a Black woman entering a STEM career at the height of the Civil Rights movement, June’s goal was always to be a role model for women and people of color. And she marched through life to the tune of her favourite composer, John Philip Sousa, who just happened to help her answer the $64,000 question.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

  continue reading

123 episodes

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