Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Contributed Photo Sue Lederer, a space scientist for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, addresses young students on a recent educational outreach effort in Scotland.
Contributed Photo Sue Lederer, shown as a cheerleader during her sophomore year at Shawano High School, developed a love of astronomy by stargazing on Shawano Lake.
With all due respect to former Shawano students who have conquered the world in their chosen professions, Sue Lederer is one whose achievements are positively other-worldly.
The onetime Shawano High School cheerleader now works for NASA and is part of a team of astronomers who have discovered three Earth-sized planets orbiting a star far beyond our solar system.
Not bad for a kid who grew up stargazing from a boat on Shawano Lake.
“I still have such amazing memories of being on the lake and wondering what was up there,” she said. “I had no idea that I would someday help to figure that out.”
Lederer, who grew up in Shawano during the 1970s and 1980s, works at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as a space scientist tracking thousands of objects within the Earth’s orbit.
The daughter of Ken and Kathryn Lederer, she attended St. James Lutheran School and then Shawano High School. The second-oldest of four children, she excelled in the classroom, particularly in math, and also participated in band, forensics and cheerleading.
Her father recalls that Lederer grew up wanting to be a teacher. But sensing her strong instincts for scientific research, he encouraged her to dream bigger.
“She had much more to offer,” he said.
After the family relocated to Appleton, Lederer graduated from Appleton West High School. A teacher at Appleton West first opened Lederer’s eyes to the study of physics, challenging the young math whiz to start thinking in terms of how the universe works.
When Lederer’s mother presented her with a magazine article about Christa McAuliffe — a teacher who had been chosen for a 1986 space shuttle mission, Lederer began to realize the breadth of potential careers that could be within her reach.
A bachelor’s degree in physics and math from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was soon followed by a master’s degree in astronomy and astrophysics from New Mexico State University. While working on her doctorate from the University of Florida, she was chosen for a special international summer school program in Italy.
One of the astrophysicists leading the program, Faith Vilas, was so impressed with Lederer that she invited the Wisconsinite to the Johnson Space Center to engage in some post-doctoral research for NASA.
Vilas was surprised to discover just how advanced Lederer was in her understanding of research far out among the stars.
“I didn’t have to teach her anything,” Vilas said. “She knows what she’s doing when she goes to a telescope.”
At the urging of friends and colleagues, Lederer applied to become an astronaut, only to discover that being a petite 5-foot-3 made her too short for the job.
Following a stint as a college physics professor in California, she was invited back to NASA — this time for a full-time job. She joined the orbital debris program office, which is responsible for monitoring and tracking some 17,000 asteroids and other objects within the Earth’s orbit.
The position allows her to utilize her math skills, to apply her understanding of physics, and to indulge her passion for research.
“If I was looking for a challenge, this is it,” she said.
Last year, she joined a team of scientists who were studying an extremely large star situated outside our solar system. Located in the constellation of Aquarius about 39 light years from Earth, the star dubbed “Trappist 1” is 80 times bigger than Jupiter and is believed to be about 500 million years old.
Led by an astronomer in Belgium, the international team of 15 researchers spent months working to verify the presence of three Earth-sized planets orbiting the star. The discovery was published this spring in the scientific journal known as Nature, and it was hailed as the first discovery involving multiple planets orbiting around this particular type of star.
Because of the size and temperature of the newly discovered planets, the scientific world has begun speculating whether they could be inhabited by life forms.
Lederer, whose job involved calculating the precise telescope settings to capture and observe the new planets, said she and her colleagues celebrated with champagne when their historic finding was confirmed. She said she feels fortunate to have participated in the project.
“I’ve just gotten very lucky,” she said. “It’s such an exciting job.”
Her father, a retired funeral home director who still lives in Appleton, said he recalls taking young Lederer and her siblings out on Shawano Lake for stargazing on the family boat. He also watched his daughter’s love of science blossom over the years.
Still, the moment when she told him that her team had discovered a new system of planets millions of miles away was mind-boggling, Ken Lederer said.
“It was kind of like a ‘wow’ moment,” he said. “It was like, ‘Wow, you really did this.’”