Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

How This Planet Hunter Decided To Expose A Mentor's Harassment

Courtesy of L'Oréal
L'Oréal For Women in Science fellowship recipients, from left, Julie Meyer, Sarah Richardson, Sarah Ballard, Claire Robertson and Ming Yi are honored in Washington, D.C."

This story originally aired on November 7, 2015. 

Dr. Sarah Ballard was one of the very first guests we ever had on Sound Effect. In Newness, Sound Effect's very first episode,Ballard told us about what it feels like to discover a new planet.

Ballard has not only discovered four new planets, she also discovered a new way to discover planets.

We had planned to re-air that interview as part of our Star Power episode when news broke that Geoff Marcy, a prominent astronomer and professor at the U.C. Berkeley, was found to have violated the school’s sexual harassment policies.

 

Ballard came out as one of the four women who brought the complaints against Marcy. 

We reached out to Ballard and asked if she would talk to us about her decision to come out as a complainant and the role these incidents have played in her life and her career. 

Gabriel Spitzer is a former KNKX reporter, producer and host who covered science and health and worked on the show Sound Effect.