Played by an Egyptian researcher Mariam Haitham Ismat After his participation in the publication of the “James Web Telescope” his name emerged as one of the most renowned Arab researchers, considered one of the largest scientific projects under the supervision of the American company “NASA”.

She was distinguished from many Arab female researchers by her combination of science and literature because she was crowned the youngest female novelist in the Arab world in 2017 for an English language novel (The Escaping Flashback) and an academic book on classical. Dynamics and many scientific translations were published for her.

Mariam Haitham spoke to us via email in an interview with Esmat Al Jazeera Net about her scientific experience and her contribution to the “James Web Telescope” project and her reconciliation between science and literature:

• What was the beginning of your academic career, especially at the university level and beyond?

I loved science from a young age, my parents were interested in reading, and our house was decorated with books and its environment was generally full of love for science, art and science.
For me, I loved books on history, optics and the history of Islamic science, which instilled in me a great love for physics and art.

I grew up reading biographies and achievements of scholars of Islamic civilization, such as Ibn al-Haytham, the founder of optics, and Mariam al-Astrolopia, one of the designers of the astronomical instrument used in astronomical calculations. Abbas ibn Firnas. After all, these scholars are poets, philosophers and thinkers, so my role revolved around these inspiring individuals.

When I graduated from high school in Cairo, I attended Lycoming College of Physics and Literature in Pennsylvania, USA, where I earned a BA in astronomy, a minor in mathematics, and another BA in English literature in the field of creative writing. .

• How do you synchronize science and literature?

In terms of study, some American universities offer students the opportunity to study more than one field at a time, so I decided to include literature in physics as a major, and for me, it is important to reconcile the two sciences because the two complement each other.
I only wanted to be a writer until I was 16, but after studying physics in high school I decided to be a writer and a researcher in physics together because the two sciences are inseparable from each other. The motion of the universe and astronomical objects.

For me, literature and physics are two ways of discovering the world around us, the difference being that they use two different languages, literature uses languages ​​like Arabic and English, and physics uses a mathematical language.

• Many years ago, you contributed to the founding of the company “Quash”, tell us about it, what is its role?

The idea of ​​installing Kwashier came back in 2016 to my classmates Omar Hisham and Mostafa Naki. We talked about teaching high school students in Egypt and how to create an institution that will help them choose the appropriate field at the university. Providing writing programs related to their fields of study that help them in university education.

My role was mainly to provide advice in certain fields of science, and I have had great success .. I was not part of the company, but only as a consultant who helped establish it.

• Do you have scientific literature, books and translations, tell us about them?

My two colleagues and I designed and built a radio telescope to orbit the sun, Jupiter, all the moons and asteroids, and based on this telescope we built the University Radio Astronomy Laboratory.

The second research I worked on as a software engineer on the infrared camera for the Exoplanet invention was in the James Web Space Telescope project.

The third research I worked on was a bachelor’s dissertation in astronomy, which aims to determine the number of striking stars in the Milky Way (mentioned in Surat al-Tariq) using telescopic gravity and electromagnetic radiation technology. LISA (laser interferometer space antenna). God willing, LISA is expected to be officially launched in 2030, and it is expected to monitor glowing stars and black holes.

I am happy to share with you that the textbook I edited for the last two years has finally been published! pic.twitter.com/9iNS6NKiDz

– Mariam Haitham Esmat (aryMaryumzzzz) December 9, 2020

As for my other publications, they revolve around writing in science and literature. I have published a university book on classical mechanics and its applications in programming languages ​​(Classical mechanics: a computational approach with examples using mathematics and Python) and a book on physics entitled “Physics” published in English by Routledge in 2020.

I have written 3 literary novels, but only one came to light in English (The Escaping Flashback) .Wrote when I was 16, published in 2017 by Egyptian Dar Al. – Shrook when I was 18, and then it gave me the title of “Youngest Novelist in the Country”.

I have also contributed to the translation of some scientific articles and reports from English into Arabic, the most important of which is the James Webb Telescope published by NASA, which I am proud to translate into Arabic.

• Tell us about the twinkling stars and the reason for your interest in them, what results did you achieve?

Pulsars are stars formed by the eruption of older stars, and we can detect the sound of them pulsating and their radio frequency clicking on a surface.

This type of star was first discovered in 1967 by scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

According to my undergraduate study, of the 13,522 stars in our Milky Way galaxy, Lisa to the telescope (LISA) has detected 424 glowing stars, which will be a great and exciting achievement and will open new frontiers for us in astronomical research.

• You are currently a PhD student at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, how did you get there and how do you find yourself studying there?

When I was a student at the University of Lycoming, my professors encouraged me to apply for a Ph.D. I followed their advice and accepted.

I am very proud and excited to be studying at Johns Hopkins University. I am currently working on developing a laboratory to detect dark matter particles in the universe, and we are using engineering sciences such as mathematics and computers as we use electrical devices such as quantum. squeezer, a device that compresses a vacuum based on quantum mechanics to detect the signal needed to search for dark matter particles.

• Do you stand out by participating in the launch of the James Webb Telescope, and how did you contribute to it?

In this project, I worked as a software engineer on a nearby infrared camera for exoplanet detection. My start was part of an internship program, and then they offered me a job, and I really enjoy working on a great team and an amazing global project.

• What is expected of the James Webb telescope, and is there any improvement in its functions a few months after it was launched?

The James Webb Space Telescope is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope and will allow scientists to view the universe a few million years old.

The universe is now about 13.5 billion years old, so the purpose of the James Webb Telescope is to explore the universe at a relatively young age, allowing scientists to think about the beginnings of the formation of galaxies, planets, and galaxies. Astronomical objects, except for updating cosmic principles.

Therefore, we hope that this project will open new frontiers in astronomy and allow scientists to explore in depth the research on the origin of the universe.

• Let’s talk about astronomy in Egypt and the Arab world. How do you evaluate the development of this science? What is the contribution of Arab scholars in it?

As part of the International Project “Moon Village Society” I volunteered at the Egyptian Space Agency, and lectured as much as I could at conferences and symposia to universities in Egypt, and the Astronomical Society introduced the Arabic Web Space Telescope in Egypt.

Therefore, I find that at the level of the general public interested in astronomy and astrophysics there is a continuing activity in the Arab world in Egypt or abroad.
As for the contributions of Arab scholars in this field, they are innumerable, but unfortunately for various reasons they are not always known outside the scope of the Arab world!