Tell me a little about yourself.
I’ll be a rising senior at the University of Michigan, double majoring in astronomy and physics, and minoring in space engineering. I am from upstate New York in the Saratoga Springs area. Outside of astronomy, I am a runner and on the club cross country and track team in college. I also enjoy hiking, and since I’m from upstate New York there are a lot of mountains.
I started a science podcast with four of my friends in college where we aim to share the amazing stories within science by having light-hearted conversations with professors, researchers, grad students, professionals, and really anyone with a passion for science. We all met in an intro astronomy class freshman year, with all of us interested in getting involved with research. We soon realized that research is very one-on-one tailored, not group project oriented, so that inspired us to instead pursue this idea of science communication. As our name ‘Everything Astronomy’ suggests, we want to cover a broad spectrum of topics; from the math of black holes to the biology of aliens. Other than their research interests, we also discuss their backgrounds and unique career pathways. There is such a diversity of people in astronomy and science that we figured a podcast would be the best way to share their stories and demonstrate that science can be for everyone.
Feel free to follow us on social media or listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. All platforms can be found here: https://linktr.ee/everythingastronomy.
How did you get interested in astronomy?
I don’t think there is one clear answer, but I know my dad’s personal interest in astronomy and science fiction had a lot to do with it. We used to spend nights together looking through our telescope or watching meteor showers on our hammock (even though I always preferred to look at my Hubble picture book where everything was less fuzzy), watching space-related documentaries, and I would often read through his astronomy books. At the same time, we would always watch classic science fiction films together and discuss the possibility of aliens and UFOs in the universe. I think this combination of actual science with the curiosity that comes with science fiction fueled my interest in space and led me to pursue it as an actual career.
What is your favorite part about DAWN?
It is a bit hard to tell the atmosphere there, as I haven’t yet been there in person. A lot of astronomy departments have many faculty that cover a wide range of topics, whereas it is quite rare to have a focused research interest. This is one of the things I love about DAWN; the members are from a diverse range of backgrounds, but covering one common interest. Everyone is also really supportive and friendly.
What motivated you to apply to an international REU?
I applied to this program the spring of my sophomore year. Around this time, I knew I wanted to expand my research with an REU, but I was also considering a travel abroad program in Germany. The DAWN international REU seemed like a great balance between wanting to travel abroad while also performing astronomy-related research. As it turned out, it was not financially feasible to go to Germany and the study abroad program itself was cancelled about a month in due to the pandemic. This left many of my friends that decided to go to Germany scrambling to get back home.
How has the pandemic impacted your life?
Fortunately, no one immediate to me has been sick or infected with COVID and my parents were able to continue working. I was sent home in mid-March 2020 and was stuck thereafter at home for a long period. One silver lining was that I got into hiking and I was able to hike all 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks last summer over about 11-12 days total with my two best friends from high school. Remote school was really miserable and my motivation to do homework and study was really lacking. But I did get close with my living pod this past year, making dinner together and going on our weekly outing to the supermarket on a Friday night (the highlight of my week!).
If you could have any superpower what would it be?
I would be able to manipulate space and time such that I could instantaneously travel to another spot in the universe and gaze back at Earth as it was in the past (taking advantage of light travel time). This assumes I’d have a really good telescope with me of course.
Tell me about your summer research project.
This summer I’m working with Dr. Steven Gillman, who is a postdoctoral fellow at DTU/DAWN. We are looking at the starburst-driven gas outflows of galaxies with a redshift of ~1-2. Since these galaxies exist at cosmic noon when there is a peak in star formation, the outflows are driven by the collisions of exploding supernovae and stellar winds. Essentially, I am focused on stacking the Halpha emission of 288 galaxies with KMOS IFU spectroscopy and comparing the outflow velocities with other properties of these galaxies.
Where is the first place you want to visit when we finally get you to Copenhagen?
After the bathroom at the airport, I would probably head straight for the best coffee shop (asking my advisor his opinion ahead of time). I really like coffee. Did I forget to mention that?
Anything else that you want to share?
In addition to my podcast that you can follow @EvAstroPodcast, you can also follow my paw-some cat on instagram @scotchbuttercat. The three pillars of my life are coffee, astronomy, and cats.
Follow Michael on Twitter @messeremichael or his podcast at @EvAstroPodcast!