Beth+Brown

Dr. Beth A. Brown is from Roanoke Virginia, where she grew up with her parents, little brother, and older cousin. She enjoyed science because she was curious about how something worked and why it existed. In elementarty and junior high Beth participated in science fairs. Even though astronomy fascinated Beth so much she never did her projects on it. Beth was a very intelligent student that took AP classes in high school, also she participated in marching bands and concert bands. Beth was valedictoarian of her graduating class. She was still in love with science so she decided to be an astronaut. Beth Brown attended Howard University studying physics and some astronomy.

In 1991, While Beth was attending Howard she went and did a few internships where she had a professor that she would talk about becoming an astronaut with and he gave her an assignment on "What it takes to become an astronaut". As Beth did her project she discovered that her near-sighted vision would affect chances of becoming a astronaut. She also discovered that her having to be in cramped corners wasnt so appealing to her. However, Beth graduated Summa Cum Laude from Howard with a BS in astrophysics and still attended a 2nd year for the physics graduate program. But even though physics was more of Beth's major she decided to take astronomy as a career. After Beth graduated from Howard she got enrolled in University of Michigan, where she entered the doctoral program in Dept. of Astronomy. While there Beth was very active she taught labs, co-created astronomy projects, presented at several conferences, and many more interesting activities. In 1994 Beth recieved her MS in Astronomy. On December 20th Of 1998 Beth was crowned the first African American Woman to recieve her Ph.D from the Dept. of Astronomy from the University of Michigan.