Baltimore Charter.Meg Urry has been an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScl) since 1987. STScl carries out the science program of the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA. Her scientific research concerns active galaxies, which are galaxies with unusually luminous cores that are likely powered by massive black holes. To understand these objects, she makes observations throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to infrared-optical -UV light to X-and gamma rays, using satellite experiments and ground-based observatories.
Urry has also maintained a long interest in the issue of women in science, and she was the chief organizer of the
1992 conference on Women in Astronomy which led to the Baltimore Charter.
Meg thinks it's really important to have a life beside a career. She likes science a lot, but it isn't the most important thing. Her family consists of two adorable daughters, Amelia, who is almost five, and Sophia, who is just over two years old. She loves them more than it is possible to explain. Urry says it's tough to manage the family plus job sometimes, and the only reason she can is because her husband, an astrophysist at the Goddard Spcace Flight Center, is an equal partner in their marriage. The best advice that she could give to young girls who want a career of any kind would be to marry the right guy! She is really surprised sometimes when she hears intelligent young women agreeing to shoulder the greater part of the burden, agreeing to subordinate their careers and aspirations to those of the men in their lives, for no reason other than that is the way it is always done or that is the way their husbands and boyfriends have assumed it will be. She hopes young girls grow up valuing their dreams and their futures as much as young boys do.
