Tell me a little about yourself.
I am a rising senior at the University of Kansas majoring in astronomy. I grew up the Tulsa area in Oklahoma, but I’ve been in Kansas for about 6 years now. I just moved to Champaign (but not the fun Champagne) Illinois because my husband got a job at the University of Illinois.
My main hobby is hanging out with my cat. The running joke with my husband at the idea of being away for 11 weeks for this program was that I’d miss the cat more than him. She has been my companion throughout this pandemic. I also like reading, video games, and amateur astronomy.
How did you get interested in astronomy?
I always thought space was cool but I didn’t realize that there was a pathway to have a career in astronomy when I was originally researching degrees. So I actually got a degree in Industrial Engineering and I worked in the manufacturing industry for 5 years. Working at the Ford Motor Company, I was responsible for building F150s (pick-up trucks for the uninformed) and baggage handling equipment for airports. But I decided to leave manufacturing, and around that time I had also joined an amateur astronomy group. I loved learning more about astronomy and space, with many professors from local universities coming to give talks. When I decided to switch gears, I knew that my extensive math background would come in handy for my new major. So here I am today…
What is your favorite part about DAWN?
I think my favorite part about DAWN is how collaborative and supportive everyone is. On Tuesdays, during our regular center-wide working group meeting, I like to hear about the different ongoing projects. When people share their research, everyone always offers great suggestions to make improvements. I’ve really enjoyed this part witnessing these interactions.
What motivated you to apply to an international REU?
Before the pandemic, in fall 2019, the professor of my observational astrophysics class passed around the flier for this program. I knew I wanted to apply to an REU but there are so few chances to go to an international REU. So this sounded like a really great opportunity!
How has the pandemic impacted your life?
I’ve been really fortunate in that none of my family members have had serious complications with COVID. Like most people, I’ve been studying and working from home since March 2020. One of the biggest impacts, since I had just transferred in Fall of 2019 to KU, was that I had a very short transition period. It is really hard to make new friendships, and even to maintain existing friendships, during the pandemic when there is so much isolation.
If you could have any superpower what would it be?
I feel like I'm going back to my cat a lot, but if I could have any superpower it would be the ability to talk to animals. I could see what is my cat is chasing around the house. I could tell my cat why it is important that they need to take their medicine. Communication in general would just be so much easier!
Tell me about your summer research project.
This summer I am working with DAWN PhD candidate Kate Gould and we are looking at a way to fit spectral energy distributions to new photometry in order to find the star formation histories of the galaxies and compare those with measurements from spectroscopic data. This is exciting because it takes a lot less resources to measure star formation histories from photometric versus spectroscopic data; we hope to demonstrate that we can make these measurements robustly from photometry alone at a much cheaper “observational cost".
Where is the first place you want to visit when we finally get you to Copenhagen?
I want visit the National Museum. I love learning about history and so I can’t wait to see all of the exhibits. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Viking Exhibition, in particular, and learning more about the history of Denmark through the different eras.
Follow Casey on Twitter @Casey_Carlile!