Replay - Who Was James Webb? An honest conversation with Hakeem Oluseyi (#280)

This is a replay of the discussion with Hakeem Oluseyi on the
controversy surrounding the naming of the James Webb Space
Telescope. It continues! Today the New York Time published an
opinion piece entitled: How Naming the James Webb Telescope Turned
Into a Fight Over Homophobia: Did the former head of NASA
discriminate against gay people? One physicist tried to rebut the
accusation, only to find himself the target of attacks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/james-webb-telescope-gay-rights.html?
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA’s next great flagship
observatory. It’s set to continue — and extend — the illustrious
scientific tradition established by the Hubble Space Telescope,
while peering deeper into the universe and observing what Hubble
could not. But who was James Webb? Considering the controversy
surrounding his legacy, I wanted to explore the allegations against
him with my friend Hakeem Oluseyi and answer the question: Why was
the James Webb Space Telescope named after him? Hakeem claims that
some allegations wrongly accused an innocent man who was, among
more well-known achievements, a hero of diversity and inclusion in
American government. He worked with Lyndon Johnson and John F.
Kennedy to use NASA facilities in America’s southern states to
promote racial integration and equal opportunity in employment
Hakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist,
inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran,
and humanitarian. Oluseyi was named a Visiting Robinson Professor
at George Mason University in 2021, a distinction by which the
university recognizes outstanding faculty. In 2021, he published an
autobiography titled: A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the
Street to the Stars co-authored with Joshua Horwitz. His memoir
tells the inspiring unlikely hero’s journey story from dealing
drugs to dishing out the hardest of hardcore science communication
and inspiration! Hakeem’s best known scientific contributions are
research on the transfer of mass and energy through the Sun’s
atmosphere; the development of space-borne observatories for
studying astrophysical plasmas and dark energy; and the development
of transformative technologies in ultraviolet optics, detectors,
computer chips, and ion propulsion. Hakeem Is the president-elect
of the National Society of Black Physicists Get Hakeem’s Book: A
Quantum Life: Follow Hakeem on
Twitter https://twitter.com/hakeemoluseyi Find Hakeem’s
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