I’m delighted to speak with Shohini Ghose about her excellent 2023 book, Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe . Ghose is a Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, where she also serves as Director at the Laurier Centre for Women in Science (WinS) . She is additionally the Chief Technology Officer of the Quantum Algorithms Institute .
In our interview, we talk about the stories behind Her Space, Her Time—what inspired her to write it, how she weaves history into her teaching, and why photographs and oral histories matter for understanding the lives and discoveries of women scientists.
Trevor Owens: You’re trained as a physicist and remain deeply engaged in research. Alongside that work, you’ve written this fascinating historical book. What motivated you, as a scientist, to tell these stories—and what goals did you hope to achieve with Her Space, Her Time?
Shohini Ghose: As a physicist, I’m trained to value accuracy and completeness, and it became increasingly clear to me that the mainstream history of physics and astronomy is neither accurate, nor complete. It turns out there is a secret history of how we came to understand our universe – one that is richer and involves a much larger cast of scientists than what we are led to believe. I wanted to tell that bigger, more honest and more complete story and help correct the scientific record. That meant bringing into focus the many women whose contributions were essential but often minimized or omitted. Their absence from mainstream narratives has also helped sustain a persistent misconception that women somehow lack the aptitude or skills for physics. The historical record tells a very different story.
Women have been central to major breakthroughs in astrophysics, nuclear physics, and cosmology. The issue has never been ability, but recognition and opportunity, and I wanted to make that point through these womens’ journeys. These stories are also powerful and deeply inspirational. They are filled with intellectual brilliance, creativity, and wonderful scientific breakthroughs, often achieved while overcoming significant barriers and biases. I wanted to capture both the human and the scientific dimensions of discovery and show how they are inextricably linked. And of course, I wanted to celebrate these incredible women scientists.
TO: Her Space, Her Time links the discovery of hidden structures in the universe with the hidden histories of women who played key roles in uncovering those structures. In what ways do these two dimensions of invisibility shape how you approached the book?
SG: These two dimensions of invisibility shaped both the structure and the storytelling. Scientifically, the book traces how we came to understand phenomena that cannot be seen directly, such stellar composition, dark matter, or nuclear fission. Historically, it examines how the individuals behind these discoveries were themselves rendered invisible through systemic bias and deletion from the historical and scientific record. This parallel allowed me to frame invisibility as something that requires further examination and questioning of our own assumptions and observations. That is what this book is about.
Scientists have been able to reconstruct unseen phenomena through indirect evidence and ingenuity. To me that is the universe showing us that nothing is truly invisible. This lens guided me to focus on moments of insight, imagination and revelation, rather than presenting linear biographies.
TO: Early on, you write that Her Space, Her Time isn’t a traditional set of biographies. Instead, you dive into the science itself and the parts of each woman’s story that resonate with you as a physicist today. What led you to take that approach, and how does it shape what you want readers to take away?
SG: I wanted the women in Her Space, Her Time to be seen as scientists first. They themselves often preferred to let their science speak for them, and I wanted to honor that by centering their ideas, discoveries, and intellectual contributions. I didn’t want to present a “dumbed-down” version of their incredible achievements so I chose to explain all the necessary science in as much detail as needed to understand the impact of what they did. Also, being a scientist and not a biographer, I focused on the science since I didn’t feel I could do full justice to the richness and complexity of each of their lives within a single volume.
Each of these scientists has a story that should be the subject of a dedicated biography. Rather than attempting to compress those lives into brief, incomplete portraits, I chose to focus on how their scientific insights transformed our understanding of the universe. This approach shapes what I hope readers take away: that these women were not peripheral figures, but central contributors to major advances in physics and astronomy.
By engaging directly with the science, readers encounter them not just through their personal histories, but through the ideas and discoveries that continue to shape the field today. In addition to the current relevance of their science, I also learned a lot from the patterns of bias they faced and the way they addressed challenges. These are aspects of their stories I chose to also focus on because they are also still relevant today.
TO: You open Her Space, Her Time with a striking scene—looking out at two hundred first-year astronomy students, ready to tell them about the women who mapped and measured the stars. How did that classroom experience shape how you approached writing the book? And more broadly, how do you see bringing history—especially women’s stories—into the science classroom changing the way students learn and think about science?
SG: That was such an important moment in my own career as an educator and a physicist! I started the book with that scene because it was a real turning point for me in the classroom.
Typically, in physics and astronomy classrooms, we don’t include the history and stories behind the theories we teach. But when I switched to a storytelling approach, especially with the stories of these amazing women, the classroom and the learning environment transformed before my eyes.
Students got something different out of the science – understanding the context, and the challenges, which make the successes all the more inspiring and memorable. I really wanted to get that level of engagement with a broader audience and so that led directly to the development of the book, and also changed my approach to teaching science in the classroom.
TO: I loved seeing that you included AIP’s oral histories with Lise Meitner , Margaret Burbidge , and Vera Rubin in your further reading section. What do these first-person accounts offer that you can’t find in other kinds of sources? And how do they help you tell a fuller story of how science actually unfolds?
SG: Oral histories provide voice, texture, and intimacy that traditional academic sources cannot. In researching Her Space, Her Time, I found that it was often very difficult to locate detailed sources on many of these women. Because their contributions were frequently overlooked, there are relatively few feature articles or comprehensive accounts of their work and lives. That makes oral histories especially valuable. They offered a way to hear directly from the scientists themselves—how they described their own work, what interested them, what frustrated them, and how they engaged with the scientific process.
I was particularly interested in how they navigated challenges and those perspectives are rarely captured in formal publications. Hearing these women’s own words also gave them a voice that was deeply emotional and powerful for me personally, which directly influenced how I told their stories in the book. In that sense, oral histories are the most authentic sources of lived experience and help us build a more personal picture of how scientists perceive themselves and their environment.
TO: Each chapter of Her Space, Her Time ends with a series of photographs of the women scientists you highlight. I was glad to see that many of those images came from AIP’s Visual Archives . I’ve included several of those photos throughout this post as well. Could you share a bit about why it was important for you to include these photographs in the book—and what some of the images from our collection meant to you as you were selecting them?
SG: Photographs serve as a powerful counterpoint to invisibility. They anchor these scientists in place and time, making their presence undeniable. In Her Space, Her Time, that felt especially important given the broader theme of rendering visible those who have been long overlooked. Most of us respond strongly to visuals.
Photographs create an immediate, human connection that brings these women’s stories to life for the reader. They made these women explicitly visible, placing them in the historical and scientific record in a way that is difficult to ignore. Wherever possible, I selected images that show the women actively doing science. I wanted readers to encounter them in their “natural habitat:” their labs, observatories, and offices, engaged in the work that defined their contributions. I’m very grateful to the AIP Archives for preserving this valuable history and allowing me to share these images with the world.
TO: Looking back on the research and writing process for Her Space, Her Time, what has stayed with you most? And what do you hope readers—especially young scientists—carry forward from these stories?
SG: As a woman scientist, researching and writing Her Space, Her Time was a very personal journey for me, filled in equal parts with inspiration and wonder, as well as outrage and frustration. As a scientist, I carry these women’s voices and their connection with the universe with me. This is how I feel connected with them.
Their stories remind me that I am not alone. I am not an anomaly in science. And I am not invisible. I hope that these stories show to younger readers that science connects everyone, science is for everyone, and science needs everyone.