[aaronbrethorst]

This wouldn't, by any chance, be a woman named Tea, would it? I knew a girl in middle school and high school who was drop-dead gorgeous, incredibly smart, and a cheerleader, if memory serves, who went to Harvard and is now a post-doc at NASA.

[tesseractive]

Are there really so few women in the discipline that running across a reference to an attractive female astrophysicist likely means it's the same one you're thinking of?

[ismarc]

Considering that I'd guess the number of phd astrophysisists at under 10000, a generous 50% female ratio, and 95th percentile for level of attractiveness, we're looking at 250 potential matches, or .4%. Odds are low, but not off the charts low and only improve if there's less than 50% women. Whether awkward or not, it's not unreasonable to ask given the chances.

[tesseractive]

Ah. I didn't think about the fact that the overall pool of astrophysicists was small.

[stcredzero]

My friend is well past the post-doc stage of her life. Also, different Ivy League school.

[aaronbrethorst]

Ah, got it. Figured it was unlikely, but worth asking.