"If you have the passion and the determination, you can achieve it."
I met Mae Dubay during my sophomore year of college when she was the teaching assistant for my favorite professor in an astronomy class. Since then, she has become a valued colleague and inspiration to me, especially after learning about her impressive journey. Mae is currently pursuing her PhD in astrophysics at UNC-Chapel Hill. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, knitting, playing video games, and spending time with her cat. A huge thank you to Mae for being an incredible inspiration and for sharing her experiences with me!
Karsen
How and why did you get into the space industry?
Mae
As a child, I was truly fascinated by space. When I was three years old, I would use my mom’s film camera to take the same picture of the moon over and over again. When I got to high school, my interest in astronomy tapered out and I decided I wanted to major in pre-med. I took AP Physics in high school, hoping to avoid physics in college since I didn’t enjoy it. I struggled a lot with the subject despite having such a good memory.
Karsen
Can you tell me more about your educational background?
Mae
I am a first-generation college student, I started at Delta College, a local community college, partly because it was cheaper, but I also wanted to complete some of my general education requirements. I needed to take a natural science class, and I decided to take astronomy because of my childhood love for space. At Delta, I had the most incredible astronomy professors, and I really wouldn’t be here without them. They would bring their own telescopes to class and organize nighttime campus events where we could look through the telescopes and learn more about the planets and stars.
One of my professors invited me to do an independent study with him the following semester, which I eagerly accepted. One of my professors, who was an alumnus from Central Michigan University encouraged me to apply there. I did, and I was accepted. When I got there, I really struggled academically and even considered moving back home and switching majors. During this time, I met Cluzé* through an educational research program. He invited me to research variable stars with him, and I am so glad I accepted because it reignited my passion and love for astronomy.
I pursued a master’s degree at Portland State University, and I moved from Maine to Oregon in the summer of 2020. I studied Biophysics while working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a project that aimed to send a lander to Europa to search for life in its subsurface ocean. Afterward, I decided to fully return to astronomy, and applied to UNC to get PhD in astrophysics, and the rest is history.
Karsen
As a kid, was working with space an aspiration for you, or was it just a hobby that you had?
Mae
When I was a kid, up until I was about 12, I was dead set on being an astronaut. I thought that astronauts did all the scientific work, and I was so passionate about joining the space industry. It wasn’t until I was a teenager when I started to doubt if it was an achievable goal for me.
Karsen
Did you think you couldn't do it because it wasn’t an achievable path for you as a woman, or that you weren't good enough to do it?
Mae
It was definitely both. I'm from a small town in Michigan, and my family are all conservative farmers. I didn’t see many examples of powerful, independent, educated women in these fields around me. I was encouraged to pursue something that came naturally to me, like memorizing things, which led me to consider Pre-Med. Plus, I was terrible at high school physics, which made me think I couldn’t do it.
Karsen
You were my teachers assistant working under Daniel Reichart. What work do you do with him?
Mae
I have a lot of projects. I helped develop the Multi-Wavelength Universe (MWU) curriculum because I want to be a professor. Additionally, I do a lot of hardware work, maintaining and upgrading telescopes. I travel a few times a year to Australia (Meckering Observatory) and Chile (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory) for this. Currently, we are overhauling the entire Skynet Robotic Telescope Network**. I’m working on the software for my PhD thesis project, which involves developing an instrument to determine
if light from an astronomical source is polarized. We are using it to better understand Gamma-Ray Bursts. The goal is for this instrument to be flexible enough to be used with other robotic telescopes, including those at campus observatories nationwide.
Karsen
You mentioned wanting to be a professor after you graduate. Is that your ideal career path?
Mae
Ideally, yes. I’ve had wonderful mentors who’ve inspired me, and I’d love to pay that forward. Teaching is something I deeply enjoy – it’s incredibly rewarding to get others excited about astronomy. Being a professor allows me to blend teaching with research, which is see as the best of both worlds.
Karsen
what's your favorite project that you've worked on?
Mae
It’s not just one project, but my favorite part is going on-site to maintain the telescopes. It involves long, challenging days where things don’t always go as planned. The hands-on work, actually interacting with the telescopes I find incredibly fulfilling.
Karsen
I agree, seeing and working with telescopes firsthand changes the whole experience. From your perspective, where do you see the space industry heading next. What scientific discoveries or advancements do you think are on the horizon?
Mae
Looking ahead, I think discovering power sources for missions far from Earth are crucial. I’m particularly excited about advancing our capabilities in interstellar travel and missions to Mars. The logistics of long- duration space travel – like ensuring food supply, maintaining habitat pressures, what kind of seals are we going to need – those logistics are fascinating to me. As someone who is involved with Skynet, I believe bridging the gap between the space community and the public is vital. Space can seem mysterious and inaccessible, but I’ve seen firsthand that with guidance and access to tools like telescopes, anyone can engage and make contributions to space exploration. Making space more accessible to the public is definitely a key step forward.
When I was at Delta College, I created an account with the American Association of Variable Star Observers, a citizen science program. It was fantastic because they provided star charts, and anyone could participate by observing variable stars and recording changes in brightness. If the public had widespread access to telescopes like Skynet, everyone could contribute by taking images and analyzing brightness data, which would greatly expand our knowledge and understanding.
Karsen
A reason why the space industry feels inaccessible to the public is that misconception that you need extensive knowledge to participate. As a sophomore, I was able to take a radio astronomy course with minimal background knowledge. People often imagine the space industry as requiring decades of training, like astronauts or engineers, but people forget that it’s a business. If we make it more accessible, it will not only engage more people but make the entire industry more inclusive.
Mae
Absolutely. Another misconception is that individual contributions don’t matter. When I was observing a single variable star, it felt insignificant, but every small contribution adds up. There’s so much left to learn about the universe, and no single person can uncover it all. Each piece of data is crucial, and it’s through these small steps that progress is made.
Karsen
Do you think new discoveries will create new job opportunities? Jobs that are more accessible to the general public?
Mae
100%, especially with the rapid improvement in computing resources. Over the past decades, computers have advanced tremendously, and can generate vast amounts of data – terabytes upon terabytes. Analyzing this data requires people, regardless of their background, to interpret and derive meaning from it. I remember a professor once mentioning the challenge of efficiently transporting a night’s worth of data from the Maunakea Observatory to Maryland; currently, the most efficient way is physically shipping it on a disk due to the sheer volume. There are numerous opportunities emerging for people to contribute and engage in the space industry, especially those who are driven by these enhanced computational capabilities.
Karsen
Do you also think the creation of AI will help with that?
Mae
For sure, AI holds promise in the space industry. Machine learning algorithms, for instance, are already being used to categorize different bacteria. However, humans are crucial in training these AI models because we are amazing at identifying patterns that machines might miss. Training AI to effectively categorize and handle astronomical data could greatly enhance our capabilities.
Karsen
I think the industry has a lot of growth potential regarding gendered representation. Currently, only 23% of women hold science and engineering occupations out of the 225,000 who work at NASA, with women making up only 34% of the total staff.
Mae
There is a clear need for improvement. UNC’s program shows better-than-average gender representation; Even within our tenured astronomy faculty, there is now only one woman, Dr. Eric Check. While I’ve had a lot of supportive mentors, I’ve also endured skepticism about the future of my career. It can be really disheartening and intimidating to enter a class as the only woman. I vividly recall my first astronomy class at Central Michigan where I was the only female student. I approached Cluzé before I had officially enrolled, and I overheard someone up front say: “Dude, it’s a girl, should we tell her she’s in the wrong class?” Later when I sat down the same guy whispered to his friend “Dude, It’s a girl, and she’s… in the class.”
There was a time when I was the only upperclassman female physics major in my department. I think it’s improving with the addition of younger faculty in colleges. However, many students have already dismissed and written off these fields before they even start colleges. Now, with introductory programs in high school, upper level high schoolers can get involved. As tech and educational research advance, we could even potentially see freshman in high school engaging in astrophysics and the space industry. Exposure at a young age builds confidence, which is super crucial.
Karsen
I also believe it starts at a young age. When you learn about the pioneers of science, they are all men, which subconsciously sets societal expectations that menare capable in scientific fields, reinforcing the idea that girls might not excel in these areas. Especially when you get to middle and high school, with the added pressure of comparison and insecurity, these beliefs can intensify.
Mae
Historically, women’s contributions have been left out of textbooks. For example, the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram, which was crucial in stellar evolution, was made possible by a team of women whose efforts were left out. Jocelyn Bell Burnell is another example, the woman who discovered the first radio pulsar. She visited UNC about a year before I arrived, and her male advisor just recently received a Nobel Prize for her discovery, and she’s still alive! This problem extends further when considering people of color. Once, at a conference, I heard from an African-American woman who was among the first hundred African American women to receive a PhD in physics, and she is just a little older than me.
Karsen
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in joining the space industry, or who are just starting out in the industry?
Mae
What I wish someone had told me is simply: “I know you can do it.” If you have the passion and the determination, you can achieve it. There will be challenges, and I faced doubts about my own abilities. It’s tough, but also incredibly rewarding, so keep pushing forward. It can be discouraging, but finding a supportive community that uplifts and encourages you can make all the difference.
