Aug 22, 2023
Astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance visits Google to discuss her
book “Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the
Dark.” The book is an inspirational and science-packed memoir that
details how she carved out a place in the field of astrophysics,
grounding herself in her passion and a lifelong love of the
stars.
As a child, Sarafina spent nearly every evening with her father
gazing up at the flickering stars and pondering what secrets the
night sky held. The daughter of an American father and Egyptian
mother who both pushed her toward academic excellence, Sarafina
dreamed of becoming an astronomer and untangling the mysteries of
the stars overhead. But it wasn’t long before she was told, both
explicitly and implicitly, that girls just weren’t cut out for math
and science.
In “Starstruck”, Sarafina invites us to consider the cosmos through
fascinating science lessons to open each chapter. But she also
traces more earthbound obstacles, such as misogyny and racism,
abuse and intergenerational trauma, anxiety and self-doubt, and
cancer diagnoses and recovery. As her career and passion for space
brought her from UT Austin to UC Berkeley, and even to a Mars
astronaut simulation in Hawai’i, Sarafina learned how to
survive—and ultimately thrive—in a space that was seldom welcoming
to women.
Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.