CU Boulder Professor Earns NASA Award

University of Colorado Boulder Associate Professor Stefanie K. Johnson was recognized by NASA for her work to reduce gender bias in the Hubble Space Telescope program.

The 2020 Agency Honors Group Achievement Award recognizes Johnson’s “outstanding effort in strengthening the review of the Hubble Space Telescope observing proposals, sparking a revolution in the evaluation of proposals in space science,” according to a University of Colorado Boulder news release.

Johnson’s research looked at applications for access to the Hubble Space Telescope and found that women lead scientists were awarded access to the telescope at a lower rate than men. Johnson co-authored the study with Jessica Kirk of the University of Memphis.

The study also found that when proposals were made anonymously, the gender bias disappeared. Specifically, male reviewers rated proposals by women significantly worse than those by men, but that difference disappeared when the proposals were made anonymous

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.