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November 3, 2023 | By Jennifer Levin

When Rachel Dudik (A02) needed a job after graduating from St. John鈥檚 College, she jumped at the opportunity to spend the summer researching black holes at George Mason University, fascinated by beautiful photos of the night sky. Dudik had considered graduate school for visual art or forestry, but she also liked math and science and enjoyed her work at GMU far more than anticipated. So she ended up accepting a position at the school as a graduate research assistant and, over the following six years, completed her doctorate in astrophysics. Dudik credits St. John鈥檚 with giving her the confidence to tackle unfamiliar intellectual challenges鈥攚hich, for her, has led to a rewarding career at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), which sets the time standard for agencies across the globe.聽

Dudik joined the scientific and military facility in Washington, D.C. in 2008, where she steadily moved up the ranks of management. As the head of requirements and assessments, Dudik is responsible for ensuring that the USNO鈥檚 scientific programs meet necessary protocols and that their data products are accurate. She has also held roles as the USNO鈥檚 acting scientific director as well as its risk management framework program manager; network migration program manager; acting head of development, security and operations; and acting chief technology officer. In 2016, she received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award for her work at the agency.

Dudik describes her current position at USNO as 鈥渒ind of the liberal arts of the science world,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 not an expert at anything, but I know a little bit about everything. My strength is that I can use those experiences across multiple disciplines to come up with creative ideas, and use lessons learned from other places to help the development of new programs.鈥�

Dudik has kept her research focus equally broad; instead of specializing in just one area of black holes, such as black holes in the visible band, she says she would 鈥渄o a paper on this type of black hole on the visible band, and then a research paper on this kind of star鈥攕preading out my palate of topics, which allowed me to ask more creative questions and make different associations than others might.鈥�

Studying black holes might sound like the purview of NASA, but it also relates to the mission of the USNO, which was founded in 1830 as the Naval Depot of Charts and Instruments. Initially, it cared for the Navy鈥檚 chronometers, charts, logs, and other navigational instruments, and produced star almanacs used by ships for navigation. The USNO is still mandated by Congress to deliver those almanacs every year, and it also provides a software program that helps ships calculate and navigate using stars in situations where they might not have GPS. The agency鈥檚 modern mission, as stated on its official website, is to 鈥渄efine and apply the physical environment, from the bottom of the ocean to the stars, to ensure that the U.S. Navy has the freedom of action to deter aggression, maintain freedom of the seas and win wars.鈥�

In simple terms, Dudik says, she and her colleagues continuously define time based on the location of the sun鈥攕o that, for instance, world markets have a standard reference, GPS systems can locate cars and space satellites, and airplanes don鈥檛 crash into each other. Dudik herself worked on the black hole science associated with the International Celestial Reference Frame, which sets the grid for the universe.

鈥淓very day, we update what time is. Sometimes the Earth is speeding up, sometimes it鈥檚 slowing down. The Earth is rotating around the sun and on its axis, it鈥檚 wobbling on that rotation, and the orbit itself is changing based on the mass of the sun, and where the moon is, and the tides,鈥� she says. 鈥淥n top of that, the entire solar system is rotating around a black hole in the center of our galaxy.鈥�

Achieving moment-to-moment accuracy in a relative system like time requires a tremendous amount of math as well as precision instrumentation. And more philosophical Johnnie-esque questions about the nature of time can tread into the theoretical. 鈥淚鈥檓 not an expert in that,鈥� Dudik says, 鈥渂ut I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a good answer for what 鈥楾ime鈥� with a capital 鈥楾鈥� is. Humanity has recognized the need to have a standard.鈥�

Merging hard science with the awe she first experienced looking at photos of the night sky, Dudik says to imagine yourself alone in a field, staring up at the stars and wondering where you are in relation to them. 鈥淭he stars you can see are rotating around the galaxy,鈥� Dudik explains. 鈥淲hen you turn around in a circle, you need a reference point to know that you鈥檝e turned around in a circle. If you don鈥檛 have a reference point, you don鈥檛 know what a full rotation is. Every day, we鈥檙e answering that question, pinning it down, redefining what time is.鈥�

Dudik lives with her husband and their two young sons in Arlington, Virginia, near the Potomac River, where she takes advantage of trails for hiking and running and strives for a satisfying work-life balance. She dreams of one day getting back to pure research, which indulges her penchant for creative thinking.

鈥淭rue research is much more artistic than you think,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 extremely difficult for people to come up with an idea to start to explore a question. It鈥檚 not just a question for the sake of a question, but a question that gets back to a fundamental understanding of our universe. St. John鈥檚 students are comfortable with this kind of thinking.鈥�