A legendary University of Arizona scientist is getting an award from one of the country's top athletic conferences.
Regent's professor Marcia Rieke developed instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope. Now she's been recognized by the Big 12 Conference as UA's Faculty of the Year honoree.
Rieke recalls playing women's basketball during her undergraduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"MIT could see Title IX coming over the horizon," she said. "And they prided themselves on having more NCAA sanctioned teams than any other university although they were not big time in any one of them."
Rieke notes in those days, women's college basketball hardly drew a crowd, and MIT teams generally played against other women's schools in the East.
"I remember we played at Wellesley, which is a women's college. And we did okay."
Rieke says being part of a basketball team taught her about discipline and resilience as she moved into her career in science and research. Her Big 12 honor will come in front of a crowd at the McKale Center during the Arizona Wildcats' showdown with Brigham Young University on Wednesday night.
Arizona, Central Florida, and the University of Houston each have highly regarded academic programs in space science and research. All the schools are members of the Big 12 Conference.
