Tell me a little about yourself.
I am a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Astronomy at UT Austin, and I am originally from California. I enlisted in the military when I was 17 years old to become an Arabic translator working for the National Security Agency. My goal was to go to college and one of the main benefits of my assignment in the Air Force was that I could take night classes. I was working towards a business and studio art degree, but I also took some computer science classes. I feel that often this artistic side of me comes out in developing my science posters and plots; I am quite particular about color schemes! Marketing, promotion, and a fundamental understanding of the customer are also important in the sciences — when you propose for something, you are ultimately selling your science and ideas to a reviewer, and it helps to view this process through that lens. Sometimes I feel like I wasted a lot of time on taking classes for these degrees that did not translate directly to Astronomy, but I recognize the benefits and skills I gained, like helping me to break stage fright among other things.
How did you get interested in astronomy?
After the military, I went to San Jose State full time. However, when my family moved to Austin, I followed and tried to transfer to UT Austin. Unfortunately, the Business School wouldn’t accept my request to transfer because I had too many credit hours (I ended up graduating with 226 credits, 100 more credits than you need for a degree). I eventually got accepted into UT Austin as an undeclared major, but I could only pick majors in the natural sciences or liberal arts, and the list they gave me was alphabetical. I liked space and science fiction, so I picked Astronomy on a whim, and I found myself starting over in a new degree taking introductory physics courses and failing miserably! I tried to find some purpose in astronomy by starting a research project with a professor at UT Austin. I am so grateful for the time that he invested in me and during that project that I ended up making a discovery that no other human has done. I realized I wanted to do this forever; it was truly the coolest thing I have ever experienced. I continued to struggle with my classes, and I ran out of funding from the military, but I got scholarships to pay for a third year to finish my degree so that I could apply for graduate school. Had this professor not taken a chance on me, I would have given up and not be here today; I am forever grateful to him. While Arabic came very naturally to me, physics does not - it doesn’t click for me, and I struggle with it to this day. But I recognize I can love doing something and not be the best at it. Ultimately being happy is much more important.
What is your favorite part about Dawn?
I like the concept of a center of research excellence. I have taken advantage of opportunities to work at these types of places before and I was interested in seeing what an institute such as this would be like in another country. I am excited about the research atmosphere that Dawn provides. Having a pure research-driven environment is exciting to me.
What motivated you to apply to an international REU?
My main motivation came from thinking about where I want to apply for postdocs. I have had opportunities to live in different places that I have not taken in my life, and so it felt like the right way to approach this next stage of my career by spending some time in a place I might want to move to. It will be a different culture for both work and life and I think it is important to experience this firsthand. It is better for me as a human, and for astronomy as a whole, for us to be more international.
How has the pandemic impacted your life?
I want to start off by saying I am very lucky and privileged that the impact that the pandemic has had on me is only that of mental stress as I haven’t experienced great personal hardship or loss. I am so grateful that the main impact for me was only canceled internships and travel. It sucks to have a well-planned out summer of talks, internships, travel, and conferences that all got put on hold or canceled. This has been depressing and especially difficult to watch those opportunities all disappear, but I feel grateful to have my family nearby.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Teleportation - traveling is such a pain! I don’t like driving and I have friends all over the place from different parts of my life (astronomy, military, etc) and travel times are such a barrier to seeing friends. Wouldn’t it be great to pop in for a lunch visit? It would take all the hassles out, leaving more time for the important stuff.
Tell me about your Ph.D. project.
I study galaxies from the very beginning of the universe to understand how they, and the Universe itself, evolve into the one we live in today. We search through the dense fog of the early universe to discover these sites of intense star formation in galaxies that are lighting up the early universe. I use ground and space-based telescopes to push our current technological capabilities to see as far back in time as possible. I am super excited (and nervous) about the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope as it will usher into a new era of discovery!
Where is the first place you want to visit when we finally get you to Copenhagen?
I want to hop on a bicycle and go to visit Mikkeller and the food market next door…. I can’t wait!
Anything else that you want to share?
I feel a big part of our job is to increase humanity's knowledge of our place in the universe and how we got here and the effort to communicate science to the rest of humanity is an important aspect of being an astronomer. To that end, I am involved with Astronomy on Tab in Austin and spend time talking to people in daily life about space and science. Outreach can be a very powerful tool because astronomy is an easy-access science, every person can go outside and look up at the sky and be a part of what we do. It is important for us to continue to share what we are learning with the rest of the world in as much of a capacity as we are able.
Please check out Rebecca’s professional webpage or follow her on twitter @SaturnsWings to hear more about her research and academic journey!