Dr. Moogega Cooper gives talk at CU
Integral to the 2020 Mars Mission, Dr. Moogega Cooper gave a talk on Wednesday, April 13th to the CU Campus.
After the resounding success of their Simu Liu event in February, CU’s Distinguished Speakers Board (DSB) presented their latest event, “An Evening with Dr. Moogega Cooper,” on Wednesday, April 13th. Dr. Cooper, often referred to as a “real Guardian of the Galaxy” in her previous talks at Google and TEDx, served as the Lead of Planetary Protection for the NASA Mars 2020 Mission.
Sawyer Bundgaard, Chair of the Distinguished Speakers Board, expressed excitement that the board was able to bring her to campus this semester.
“Dr. Cooper has long been on our list as a significant speaker to bring to campus … she opens the door for our campus to hear about the diversity of thought that has struggled to exist in engineering in the past and today.I hope our campus takes away a significant insight into her ideas for the future,” said Bundgaard.
Bringing diverse stories, like Dr. Cooper’s has appeared to be a priority of DSB recently. Having co-hosted an event with the Cultural Events Board less than two months ago featuring Marvel star Simu Liu, lead actor in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, DSB has shown not only a dedication to amplifying BIPOC voices, but also an understanding of why those voices are needed on CU’s campus.
“It is important for individuals to hear the perspectives of people of color because they experience the world differently than white people do. For those students who are racial minorities, we hope by seeing a woman of color in a white male dominated industry, they will see that despite the barriers, there is a career waiting for them in whatever field they desire.” said Veena Bhatnagar, Director of Operations for the DSB.
Dr. Cooper’s achievements speak for themselves—in 2019, the Washington Post reported that only 24% of employees in the aerospace industry were women. The space industry is famously homogeneous, with white males making up the majority of leadership, engineering, and even astronaut roles. Bringing Dr. Cooper to campus, with her unique perspective as a BIPOC woman navigating the often high-stress waters of NASA, served to honor and amplify diverse success stories.
Dr. Cooper emphasized some central tenets of life she wanted to pass on to the students of CU at her talk. “Keep your childlike curiosity. Question the rules. Find a way to make a bubble where you can be riskier.”
Dr. Cooper also spoke on the importance of diversity in the space industry, asserting that the value of diversity stems from the perspective that it can bring to the team. “NASA! You’re not very diverse, you don’t reflect America!”, she jokingly criticized, going on to assure audience members “No one was raised like you, and you have something unique that could help a space mission. We all come together to not only build spacecrafts, but to build a better space here on this planet.”
Dr. Cooper’s expertise echoes the prominent engineering community at CU. Given that CU represents a white and male majority on its campus, Dr. Cooper’s unique perspective as a biracial woman in the highest chambers of the space exploration industry answers the long-standing call to break the status quo. Giving a platform to diverse success stories, especially on a campus that lacks a robust diverse population, is one of the first steps to truly nurturing talent in all packages and preparing them for success in any industry they may choose.
