Please join us in giving a warm welcome to our newest team member, Dr. Eun-Joo Ahn. She recently joined our initiative as a Postdoctoral Associate. At Yale, Dr. Ahn is affiliated within Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM), and with a mentorship by Physics Professor Reina Maruyama.
Eun-Joo is a historian of science who explores how science shapes and gets shaped by our surroundings. Her dissertation examined the founding and development of Mount Wilson Observatory, an astronomical observatory located near Pasadena, in relation to Southern California’s sociocultural and natural environment during the early twentieth century. Her work included highlighting the role of scientific workers such as human computers and telescope assistants in knowledge production (published in the Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 2022).
Eun-Joo is also interested in studying twentieth century and recent transnational science through the lens of industrialization of Korea and the immigration policies of the United States. She is particularly interested in examing the sociocultural role of Korean and Korean American scientists in this transnational exchange and in shpaing the perception of Asians and Asian Americans.
Previously, Eun-Joo was a particle astrophysicist. She worked on the hadronic interactions and composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays and was part of the Pierre Auger Collaboration. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of California Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Chicago.