In a University of Colorado at Boulder physics lab recently, Martha-Elizabeth "Marty" Baylor popped a pair of rose-colored goggles over her eyes and lowered her head under the glass of a laser system she uses to conduct optical research.
Among other challenges, Baylor, a JILA research assistant and graduate student, is working on a riddle scientists call the "cocktail party problem."
The question: How does the human brain zero in on one conversation while filtering out others? While some researchers have tackled the problem through mathematical equations or computer science, Baylor said, "We are the only ones with an optical solution, which is faster than anything out there."
Under the guidance of her adviser, physics Professor Dana Z. Anderson, Baylor is conducting National Science Foundation-funded research. One day, the team's work could lead to new applications in biomedicine, telecommunications and space exploration. Scientists already are building on clues garnered from this field to create powerful new signal-processing tools, Baylor said.
Later this year, Baylor, 30, will reach an academic milestone when she becomes the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in physics from CU-Boulder and one of only a handful of black women to do so in the United States. It's an achievement that is not going unnoticed.
"She is a remarkable individual," said John Cumalat, who chairs the university's renowned physics department, which boasts three Nobel laureates.
According to Anderson, "Marty is among the most capable - and certainly the most world-aware - physics students I have had the pleasure to work with in my 23 years at the University of Colorado."
Worldwide, women are still underrepresented in the sciences, including physics. According to an American Institute of Physics 2005 report, almost half of all U.S. high school physics students are female, but women start leaving the field in disproportionate numbers in college. At the doctoral level, only 42 African-American women received doctoral degrees in physics between 1976 and 2005, according to the most recent data provided by the National Science Foundation.
Before starting graduate school, Baylor taught math and physics at the middle school and college levels, and worked as an electrical engineer for two years at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. She plans to teach physics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., before starting post-doctoral work and, ultimately, would like to teach at a small liberal arts college in Colorado.
As a teacher and private citizen, Baylor is dedicated to infusing new generations with her enthusiasm for math, physics and programs aimed at improving the human condition. As a delegate at national joint conferences of the National Society of Black and Hispanic Physicists, Baylor is credited with organizing other students and encouraging them to attend meetings. For her efforts to create new networking opportunities for new and continuing students of color she received a 2007 President's Diversity Award at CU-Boulder.
"I am a doer. If I see a problem and I am not doing something myself, or enabling others to do something, I am not happy," she said.
Baylor also has a hands-on approach with community outreach programs such as Science Discovery, a CU-Boulder science program for K-12 students, and with Habitat for Humanity.
At Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, Baylor earned a bachelor's degree in physics with a minor in Chinese. As an undergraduate, she studied at Nanjing University and plans to return to China this winter to visit a family that hosted her during a summer working stint at a Shenzhen laser company in 2004.
Unpretentious about her accomplishments and contributions, Baylor credits her family with nurturing her varied interests and successes. She grew up in Columbia, Md., where she said her parents did not allow her or her two brothers to blame anyone else if they did not succeed.
"My parents are amazing people. I was never, ever allowed to say, 'I can't. I wasn't allowed to blame the teacher. We just had to find a way to get through it," she said.
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