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(gentle music)

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- My name is Thomas Zurbuchen,
also known as Dr. Z.

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- And I'm Ellen Stofan,
also known as Dr. E.

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Welcome to another
episode of "E.Z. Science."

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So we're here at

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the Smithsonian's National
Air and Space Museum.

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And this is an amazing exhibit
that I'm so excited about.

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It's called If Then She Can,

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which is all about if you can
see it, you can believe it,

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and we want girls to know they can.

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They can become scientists,
engineers, and technologists.

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We have 120 3D printed
orange plastic statues

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all of women who are currently
right now changing the world

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in science, technology,
engineering, and math.

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It's the largest group of statues

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of women ever brought together

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by the Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

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But what is really important
to me is in the few weeks

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we've had this at the Smithsonian,

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we've had many of the women
who these are statue of

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here with us.

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- And I had an opportunity to speak

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with Dr. Kelly Korreck today,
who I know for over 20 years

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because 17 years ago or so
she graduated with a doctorate

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and I happened to be the PhD advisor.

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And I followed her career
from the Smithsonian.

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She's currently working
at NASA Headquarters.

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Hey Kelly, it's just
wonderful to see you here.

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And you being honored,

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one of the statues that we're looking at,

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you were a student of mine
and graduated 17 years ago

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with a doctorate.

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What happen since then, Kelly?

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- Well, thank you so much, Thomas.

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Yeah, the last 17 years
has been so exciting,

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done a variety of things.

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Went, first of all, to the
Center for Astrophysics,

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the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

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up in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
where I did a postdoc

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and studied stars that explode

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as well as jets coming out of galaxies.

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Then moved on to start
building instruments

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and focusing on the sun,

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which was really one of my first loves

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and work I've done with
you as a graduate student.

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I worked on NASA's Parker Solar Probe,

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the mission to touch the sun,

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and part of that instrument suite

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that was able to fly into the corona

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for the first time last year.

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- Just wonderful.

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So you of course built one
of the hottest instruments

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actually ever built for space research,

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an instrument that's on the
outside of the heat shield.

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Tell us what's the most
important thing you figured out

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in your own research that
relates to that instrument?

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- Right, the things that I
figured out specifically was

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to look at coronal mass ejections,

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or these billions of tons of material,

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equivalent to 80 million school buses,

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racing towards us at
millions of miles an hour

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and how they're different.

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And we've saw for the
first time, the closest,

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the birth of these CMEs with
Parker and how they evolve,

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and how they are a little different

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than what they look like in at Earth.

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And so that's why we need to go

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all these different vantage points

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to really understand space weather.

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- I have to tell you how
when I was a grad student

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and a postdoc, I dreamed of those data.

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I'm just so proud that you are able

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to make those first
observations close to the sun

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of these amazing phenomena,

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which of course shape astrophysics.

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What is your advice to young girls

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about potential careers in science?

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- Stay curious.

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Figure out what problem you wanna solve

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and then ask the questions that are going

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to help you solve that.

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Work together, find
someone who inspires you,

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surround yourself with
people who are curious

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and interesting, and
you'll do great things.

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- You being honored as
part of that exhibit,

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it means just a lot to me personally,

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because I'm so proud of you,
of what you have achieved.

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- Well, thank you so much.

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- That was such a great
conversation with Kelly.

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And earlier I got to
speak with Dana Bolles.

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- I know Dana from the
work that she does at NASA.

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And I wanna tell you,

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what she's really helping us with is how

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to communicate science,
not only individually

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to young girls and learners of all ages,

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but also rebuilding our entire websites

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that communicate science to
large audiences worldwide.

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- Dana, I'm so excited
to have you here today

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at the Air and Space Museum,

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and I'm so inspired by your statue.

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What is it like to see
yourself in orange plastic?

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- Oh, it's really weird.

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It's really strange.

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I never thought I would
see a statue of myself,

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much less a full scale size one.

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And being part of collection
is just an amazing experience.

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And meeting the other ambassadors,

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I'm so honored to be part of such a group.

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- And what's your story?

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How did you get inspired to go into space?

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- I was born with this disability.

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And so when I was younger,
I thought that the best job

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in the world would be to be in space

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where I could float around
and I wouldn't need the chair,

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and I didn't have to look up at people.

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And it just felt like
a perfect job to have.

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When I was younger, I
wanted to be an astronaut,

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and as I got older, I
focused more on engineering

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because I realized that I
depend a lot on equipment

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to be independent from
my chair and my arms,

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and especially equipment to drive my van.

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So based on all those things

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it just felt natural
to choose engineering.

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- You've had some really
interesting roles at NASA.

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Can you tell us about a few of them?

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- My very first job with NASA was at

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the Kennedy Space Center.

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I was a payload safety engineer

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and that was an incredible
way to be introduced to NASA.

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I mean the excitement of working

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for America's space program.

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And we used to approve everything

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that went up on the shuttle

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or the expendable launch
vehicles, the rockets,

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and I loved everything about it.

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Just learning about the
International Space Station

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and working on the Mars Orbiter.

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It was just excellent.

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And then a few years later,
I transferred to AIMS

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and then I worked three years

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as a ISS payload logistics lead.

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And now I was working with the project

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that would put up biological experiments

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on the International Space Station.

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- So amazing, all that
is such great science

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and it's really moving
exploration forward.

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And what's your role now
at NASA headquarters?

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- Now I am working for
the Science Engagement

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and Partnerships Division

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under the Science Mission Directory.

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And I manage the day-to-day operations

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of the science.nasa.gov website.

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So how can we get our science

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out to the widest possible audience?

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And right now we are focused
more on this special project

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where we're modernizing and
we are reducing our footprint

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and improving the user
experience to our website.

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- That's so important,

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that whole piece of how
we communicate what we do

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to the public to engage and inspire.

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And so what advice do you give

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to young women when you meet them?

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- The best advice I can give is

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to figure out what you love to do,

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'cause if you get a job doing that

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then you won't work a day in your life.

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And more importantly, don't
let others expectations of you,

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of what they think you should be doing,

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don't let that sway you from your dreams

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because you have the
power to make it happen.

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- That was such an amazing conversation.

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You know, she is so inspiring to me.

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I just can't believe what girls must think

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when they come in here
and see these statues

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and get inspired by these women.

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- I'm just so inspired,
not only as a scientist,

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as a leader, but also as
a father of a daughter

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who's also thinking
about science as a future

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and as one that tries
to inspire many others.

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I'm just so proud of them and excited

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for what this exhibit
can do in so many lives.

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- Well at the Smithsonian,

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we're mostly used to
celebrating women from history.

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But what I love about this exhibit is

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that we're celebrating women right now

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who are making such a difference.

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And that's really exciting to me.

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Thank you for joining us.

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And we look forward to the next episode