 HBCU Dutchess Radio, welcome back to our HBCU voices of STEM Excellent series. I'm your host, Jared Carter, talking to the best and brightest in science, technology, engineering, mathematics from historically black colleges and universities. Tonight, our esteemed guest is brother Howard Conyers. He literally is a rocket scientist for NASA. So, you know, you hear that colloquial phrase, you know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist. Well, in this case, it does. I mean, we're grateful to have this brother on, not only to discuss his path to becoming a rocket scientist, but some of his other very diverse interests, which in some ways tie into STEM and in other ways are a reflection of just his upbringing and his real joy for things that he takes a lot of pride in. So, brother Conyers, it's a pleasure to have you on this evening. Oh, thank you for having me. I really, it's really my honor to be on this show today. Talk about my HBCUs. And we, and they love you back. And that's why we got to have you on to try to make celebrities out of you guys. Talk a little bit about your upbringing and when you first realized that STEM was not only in interest of yours, but a professional and an academic possibility for you. Really, all my life, math and science was the two things I really enjoyed growing up for school wise. And math and science was so critical to my upbringing because I grew up on a family farm in South Carolina and we're farming. That's where really the engineering field started. I mean, if you look at it, that's the fundamentals of it. And so everything about math and science, engineering and technology is right down the farm. And that's kind of where my interest started. And I just carried that on through. And that led you into high school, into high achievement there and into North Carolina A&T. What was it about A&T that attracted you for your studies? So I went to school in Manning, South Carolina, but I got a USDA 1890 scholarship. And to study something called agricultural, at the time it was agricultural and bio-systems engineering and then it was later named for graduate bio-environmental engineering. And so that's what attracted me. And what about A&T, obviously it cultivated a love for HBCU and HBCU culture. But what about that specific STEM training? Really engaged you to say, yep, this is what I'm gonna do with my life and I'm gonna have a lot of fun doing it. The STEM training that we got in school was important but I think just the opportunity just to be around so many black people striving for excellence in these subjects and the subject matter, that was probably more inspiring. That was more, that was just as inspiring as actually the training that we got at school. And for me, being from South Carolina, which was not too far from where Dr. Ronald went there, grew up at, which was about 40 minutes away from the whole town, it was like, well, I knew I needed to be there. Just right away knew it was a good feeling. You finished A&T with a 4.0, state in state pursued masters in doctoral education at Duke University. Talk about that transition from A&T to Duke. Did you feel like some people like, whoa, you know, it was kind of a shock or you know, we've had some brothers and sisters come on and say, man, my training was so rough undergrad that I was playing video games and it was a cakewalk when I got to Duke or Princeton or Yale, how was it for you? I felt like I was prepared for it but it was also wasn't a cakewalk. I was very humbling because you go from, I go to A&T and being there to talk to a class, to going to Duke University and I'm just trying to survive and hanging there and catch up with some of the world's greatest minds. And I think the other part of the equation was, I actually totally changed majors in graduate school. I went from bio-environment, bio-environment engineering to mechanical engineering. So I kind of went to a whole another discipline. What prompted the change for you? I enjoyed the courses in fluid mechanics the most and that's, and so I wanted to know more about fluid mechanics and the professor I was working for me in mechanical engineering, he really took an interest in me and I said, that's where I want to be. And so working with Dr. Earl Dow is probably one of the highlights of going to Duke University and that's what prompted the change. And now you're enjoying a career, not only at NASA, but you're also a pit master, like a barbecue pit master and you provide training on both for folks. Talk about one life as a rocket scientist, then life as a pit master and how you successfully have bridged the two for people who want to know about both. So this is a funny story, but I was cooking a barbecue way before I would think about ever being a rocket scientist. I probably would never have been a rocket scientist if I went cooking barbecue on the farm. You're like, what are you talking about? It doesn't make any sense. So what I would say is like, when we was growing talk or killing animals to put on the barbecue pit, that's where I was learning about science. I was having hands on the demonstration. I learned about fire, I learned about the principles of how you have, what things you need to keep fire going what you need airflow or do you need wood whether it's dry or green? And so I got to see a lot of direct application. And so those things kind of mirage, it then I guess over time, oh, early in my life I developed a passion for it. And I was hooked because the way to take a big animal and turn it into something that was edible for your family and joy it's something magical about that. And it's the same thing with some of the air problems sometimes it's something magical about like taking something very challenging and then making something very palatable. So you would say working on the pit is just as challenging as rocket science then? Yeah, I'm gonna give you an example of how, how many times have you heard anybody cooking a whole cow? Never in my life. So here recently I cook the whole cow and that was where being a pit master collided with being a rocket scientist. And I think I need a, I need a, I don't think I need both of those to go well, to be successful. So how did you, first of all, how did you pull that off? Now I'm interested. So being a engineer I worked for about four months with design thinking about all the things I need to be able to do to handle the better handle a cow doing a cooking process, doing rotations, making sure that the device that I was cooking in obstructs the sound so it can support the weight load. Then it came to the art form. Once I had something to hold this animal then I went to the whole process of how I would cook this animal. I have never heard of a whole cow. I've never heard of rocket science applications to cook a cow, but it just goes to show you the level of creativity and passion that can infuse in our graduates. And so I guess to round that out, what would you say to young people who like you have diverse interests, one of them being advanced study in STEM and a career in STEM, what would you tell them about the academic and personal approach they should take to be able to fulfill both of their interests as you have? I would say first of all, don't try to define, we're trying to fit into a mold. All of us is different and we have different gifts that we should try to embrace. One of my gifts is tied so much to our culture, which is important to me, like barbecue, ties to our whole culture of being African-Americans in this country. So like me carrying on this tradition mean just as much as me getting the math and science and being, getting advanced degrees in engineering. Like that feels equally important because when I was cooking barbecue, my family always said, we're doing, we want you to be better than us. And not necessarily from the standpoint of, you got more degrees, but we want you to get an education because we weren't able to get an education. And so I had a responsibility to those individuals who came before me to get a better education. And so like, and whatever you do, do it with excellence. And that's, don't matter what it is, whether it's engineering, whether it's being a pit master, whether it's being a host of a show, because I'm also a host of a digital show with PBS. So it's this, be the best, try to be the best at what you do. And you're certainly the best at it, man. Before we jet, let us know where we can find you on social media, your website and how to get in contact with you for appearances and special requests for promotion. I don't, so I hosted a host and co-producer show with PBS called Nourish, which is on the digital series. It's about food culture and science of the American South. And it's online on the YouTube channel, youtube.com, backslash, PBS Nourish, N-O-U-R-I-S-H. My personal website to find me is HowardKonyers.com, Konyers, C-O-N-Y-E-R-E-S. My Instagram handle is CarolinaQNola, underscore-phd. And that's pretty much the best ways to reach me.