Jessica Mink

Jessica Mink is a bicycling astronomer who rides year-round from the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard, where she works. She is transgender, too. She has studied the universe from the Moon through ours and other solar systems, through the structure of our galaxy to the large scale structure of everything, writing or co-authoring over 100 papers on the way.

[She serves on the American Astronomical Society's Committees on Sexual orientation and Gender identity Minorities in Astronomy and the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, writing an monthly post on LGBTQ issues for the Women in Astronomy blog. She is also on the International Astronomical Union Data Representation Working Group and the Program Organizing Committee for the annual international Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems conferences.]

Because she bicycles every day, Jessica has been working for decades to make the world safer so more people want to join her. She has been involved in bicycle and open space efforts from local to national levels.
[Local (Neponset River Greenway Council) to neighborhood (Rozzie Bikes) to city (Boston Bikes Advisory Group) to region (Boston Area Bicycle Coalition and Bikes on the T) to state (Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition) and beyond (East Coast Greenway Alliance)].

Divorced at transition, she remains the proud parent of a daughter who grew up going to meetings and playing soccer--yes, she was a soccer mom-- and is now a grad student devoting her life to peace (and educating her parents about race, ethnicity, and gender issues).

Religion without god, American intellectual history, music, drama, photography, and interesting combinations thereof take up some of the rest of her time.
[Unitarian church choir and standing committee member, religious exploration teacher, member of the board of New Brook Farm and performer with "The Women of Brook Farm", bringing to life Boston's 1840's Transcendentalist commune.]

As she's gotten older, she likes to reflect on the results of her efforts and those of her predecessors.