News & Stories Space, Hope, and Charity: The Remarkable Journey of Astrophysicist Charity Woodrum Share By Nondas Paschos, Cyndi Atherton on 3/8/2023 on 3/8/2023 Space, Hope, and Charity is a new documentary film based on the life of Charity Woodrum, a Ph.D. candidate in astrophysics and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona. The Heising-Simons Foundation supported the filming and post-production of the documentary film with a grant from the Science program.Charity was a nontraditional university student, raised in poverty, the first in her family to graduate from high school. She was in her mid-20s, married and nine months pregnant, when she decided to return to school to study physics. Then, her world was abruptly upended by a family tragedy.With help from friends, she found her way back to science: she is currently part of NASA’s JWST Near-IR Camera (NIRCam) science team, using the universe as a time machine to tell the story of how galaxies evolve over cosmic time.You can listen to a recent podcast on Physics World Stories about how Charity found purpose in academic research. The film will premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival, with screenings and Q&A sessions over three days, March 31—April 2, 2023. You may find the Festival’s program here and watch the documentary’s trailer here. Science Close Share this page Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Email
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