Talk:Nergis Mavalvala

Stop removing uncomfortable facts about her life
Don't know how to use this but she does describe herself as "out, queer person of color": http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2012/06/just-herself

She is also certainly a Parsi with numerous sources stating it: http://www.dawn.com/news/1239270

Here it is stated she is married to a woman and has a son with her: http://parsikhabar.net/individuals/mit-astrophysicist-nergis-mavalvala-wins-macarthur-grant/2708/

I believe these facts are very important to be included in Wikipedia profile. Some people find it offensive and are trying to censor it. Please do not give in to their efforts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.11.145.24 (talk) 19:35, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 February 2016
BackHoe101 (talk) 16:06, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

As someone closely knowledgeable and at MIT, the information on this page is incorrect and I would like to contribute corrections and more accurate detail. Please grant me editorial access. Or please replace the entire Wikipedia entry with the following text:

Nergis Mavalvala, PhD is an astrophysicist known for her role in the detection of gravitational waves. She began working on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 1991 as a graduate student in Rainer Weiss’s lab at MIT. As a graduate student, Mavalvala developed a prototype laser interferometer for detecting gravitational waves. Since then her work has focused on building ever more precise instruments for LIGO, further refining the 4-kilometer long interferometers in Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA. These are used to detect the very faintest sounds of the universe—gravitational waves. Her decades long work on LIGO also led her in another direction. She and her group have done pioneering experiments on the trapping and cooling of macroscopic objects, laying down a foundation for observing quantum behavior in human-scale objects.

Mavalvala is the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the Associate Head of the physics department. In 2010 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Born and raised in Pakistan, Mavalvala grew up in the small Zorastrian community of Karachi. She attended the Convent of Jesus and Mary, a school in Karachi. She received her B.A. in Physics and Astronomy from Wellesley College in 1990. She received her Ph.D. from MIT in 1997, having done her doctoral work on LIGO under Dr. Rainer Weiss. Before she joined the physics faculty at MIT in 2002, she was a postdoctoral researcher and then a research scientist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working on LIGO.

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Semi-protected edit request on 15 February 2016
Please remove reference to her being "homosexual". This nugget is unnecessary, and likely inserted by an arch-Islamist Pakistani zealot so as to malign and disparage her remarkable achievements. It can be rephrased, if its mention is absolutely necessary. Wikipedia normally does not include stark reference to sexual leanings of other notable scientists in a brief mention such as this. Many thanks.

58.108.162.58 (talk) 00:27, 15 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Per WP:IDENTITY, she has publicly self-identified as such so it merits inclusion.  Eve rgr een Fir  (talk) Please &#123;&#123;re&#125;&#125; 00:49, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

I entered the part about her homosexuality in the article. I'm a Pakistani, but I am not a "arch-Islamist." In fact I'm an atheist, and opposed to islamism. I did not put it in to malign her (there is nothing shameful about being homosexual), I did it because she identified her as such and so belongs in the article. --113.203.208.158 (talk) 19:31, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Terminology
According to the sources (e.g. ), Mavalvala self-identifies as "gay" or "lesbian", but one or more anonymous editors keep changing this to "homosexual", which is nowadays often considered offensive (e.g. ). As there is nothing that is incorrect or inaccurate or uncommon about "lesbian", per WP:IDENTITY we should use the terminology preferred by the individual/group in question and used by reliable sources on the individual. (This is not unique to this article. See other articles on Wikipedia about living LGBT individuals and you will see that they are not typically described as "homosexual" but rather as "gay" etc.)

(It would be better to spend our energy on expanding the article's information on her scientific contributions, which are after all the source of her notability.)

— Steven G. Johnson (talk) 21:32, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

OK, sorry, I just thought the term "homosexual" was a bit more accurate. I'll leave the term "lesbian" as it is now. --113.203.218.168 (talk) 05:02, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 09:06, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Mavalvala-1000.jpg