AAPT: American Association of Physics Teachers

Meet Glenda

For the longest time I thought my father was a physical education teacher because that was all I could understand from the word “physics”. As an imaginary physical education teacher, he sure loved to look at the moon with a small refractor telescope we had at home, and made us watch Carl Sagan’s Cosmos with him on Sunday mornings. He also had many science fiction books with fantastic cover illustrations. When I was about 13 I finally picked one to read, and got hooked. It was Dune by Frank Herbert: my favorite still today. Around the same time—somehow this is embarrassing to confess, my brother and I were fascinated with the movie Top Gun. The actress Kelly McGillis played an astrophysicist in the movie—the first time I heard of such profession. The encyclopedias we had at home helped me understand a bit more about astrophysics. I think that’s the precise moment when I decided what I wanted to do. Incidentally, my brother pursued a career as pilot in the Brazilian air force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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