User:Anngie217/Wanda Díaz-Merced

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Her Spanish name is Merced, and her first or paternal surname is Díaz. Wanda Díaz-Merced is an astronomer known for using sonification to turn large data sets into audible sound. Currently at the European Gravitational Observatory Cascina, Italy, Wanda is the Director of the Arecibo Observatory. While losing her eyesight, Wanda brought attention to increasing equality of access to astronomy and using audible sound to study astrophysical data. Wanda is a part of the 7 most trailblazing women in science by the BBC.

Díaz-Merced was born in Gurabo, a small town in Puerto Rico. Both Diaz-Merced and her sister had physical disabilities, Wanda being blind, and had to learn to overcome the challenges that came. As children, the two of them would pretend to fly a spacecraft and explore other galaxies.

She entered the school science fair in middle school, where she won second place. This was a turning point for her as it made her realize that pursuing a career in science might be attainable.

Díaz-Merced lost her sight in her early twenties due to complications with degenerative diabetic retinopathy and found new ways to study stellar radiation without relying on her vision. She realized she could use her ears to detect patterns in stellar radio data that could be obscured in visual and graphical representation.

Díaz-Merced attended Matías González García Middle School and Dra. Conchita Cuevas High School in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. She then went on to study physics at the University of Puerto Rico. She received an internship with the Robert Candey at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA after she finished her undergraduate degree. She went on to receive a doctorate in computer science from the University of Glasgow in 2013, where she studied space data analysis. She was then accepted as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. and South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town

Diaz-Merced was awarded in 2017, an Estrella Luike trophy.