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Beth A. Brown, astrophysicist

Article: Beth A. Brown; rated Start class

Article only has one section, need to break into sections about early life, education, research/career, personal life. What is the difference between early and personal life really?

I know she did some pioneering work in x-ray astrophysics. Article needs more about this.

Nasa tribute: https://attic.gsfc.nasa.gov/wia2009/Dr_Beth_Brown_tribute.html

APS profile: https://www.aps.org/careers/physicists/profiles/brown.cfm

AAS memorial award: https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/beth-brown-memorial-award

APS in memoriam, archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20150220062941/http://www.aps.org/programs/minorities/honors/brown.cfm

About, archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20150220082415/http://space.about.com/od/astronomerbiographies/a/bethbrown.htm

NASA feature (shortly before death): https://web.archive.org/web/20150220081402/http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/postsecondary/features/sharing-the-stars.html

Astronomers of African diasopora: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/brown_betha.html

Thoughtco article: https://www.thoughtco.com/beth-brown-3072228

Tribute slides: https://attic.gsfc.nasa.gov/wia2009/invited_speakers/slides/LindesayBeth.pdf

Roanoke obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/roanoke/name/beth-brown-obituary?pid=118524685

article: https://darqsidenerdettes.com/dr-beth-a-brown/

nature center: https://alncfeaturedscientist.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/beth-a-brown/

Joins NASA: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nssdc_news/sept99/03_beth_brown.html

Harvard obituary: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011BAAS...43..004B/abstract

NSBP honors: https://www.nsbp.org/nsbp-news/bhm-physics-profiles/2017-honorees/28-beth-brown

African American registry: https://aaregistry.org/story/astrophysicist-beth-brown-born/

House of delegates resoultion to honor memory: https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?111+ful+HR41ER+pdf

Beth A. Brown foundation: http://www.drbethabrownsciencefoundation.com/index.html

Multiwavelength Milky Way project: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000AAS...197.8621B/abstract

https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/mwmw/mmw_images.html

Copied from Beth Brown article:

Beth A. Brown (July 15, 1969 – October 5, 2008) was a NASA astrophysicist with a research focus on X-ray observations of elliptical galaxies and black holes. She earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1998, becoming the first African-American woman to do so.[1] A dedicated mentor and role model, strongly involved in outreach.

Early Life
Beth Anne Brown was born in Roanoke, Virginia on July 15, 1969 to Frances and Robert Brown.[2][3] She grew up with her parents, her older cousin, Vivian Bratton, and her younger brother, Larry Brown.

She loved Star Trek and Star Wars.[4] She graduated from William Fleming High School in 1987 as valedictorian.[5] When a high school assignment led her on a trip to an observatory, she saw the Ring Nebula through a telescope, which she cites as the moment she "got hooked on astronomy."[4]

Education
She studied astrophysics at Howard University, graduating summa cum laude in 1991. During her undergraduate years, she completed two internships at NASA.[4] While at Howard University, she played piccolo in several University bands. She joined Tau Beta Sigma in Fall 1990.[6] She earned her M.S. in astronomy from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from there in 1998. She was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan's Department of Astronomy.[7] While at the University of Michigan, she developed a one-credit course in "naked eye astronomy" for students with no experience in astronomy.[4] Her research there concerned X-ray observations of elliptical galaxies from the Röntgen Satellite.[5]

Career and Research
Brown joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as a post-doctoral research associate with the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. She became a post-doctoral research associate for the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) in 2001. She transferred to the X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory in 2005, providing support for the GSFC XMM Guest Observer Facility. She was hired as Assistant Director for Science Communication and Higher Education for the Sciences and Exploration Director at Goddard. She also completed a NASA Administrator Fellowship where she devoted a year to research with Dr. James Lindesay and taught classes with Dr. Demetrius Venable at Howard's Department of Physics and Astronomy. Brown served as the Administrative Executive Officer for National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) for two years and was involved with the National Conference of Black Physics Students (NCBPS).[7]

Following her PhD, Beth Brown held a National Academy of Science & National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Subsequently, she served at the National Space Science Data Center at Goddard, where she was involved in data archival activities as well as education and outreach. In 2006, Brown became an Astrophysics Fellow at Goddard, during which time she worked as a visiting Assistant Professor at Howard University. At Goddard, she was NSSDC's primary interface to such Science Archive Research Centers (SARCs) as the High Energy Astrophysics SARC at Goddard, the Multi-Mission Archive at STScI (MAST) and the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) at Caltech. She also helped to "rationalize" NSSDC's legacy holdings of astrophysics data in light of data supported at the SARCs which are also to be permanently archived at NSSDC. At the time of her death, she was looking forward to a new position at GSFC as the Assistant Director for Science Communications and Higher Education.[8]

Awards and Honors
The American Astronomical Society has an award in her honor for a students with poster or oral presentations at the annual National Society of Black Physicists meeting.[9] She is featured in the book, Women of Goddard: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.[10]

Death
Brown died unexpectedly at the age of 39 from a pulmonary embolism on October 5, 2008 at Doctor's Community Hospital in Lanham, Maryland.[5]