Tell me a little about yourself.
I am currently a rising senior at Grinnell College in Iowa, majoring in Physics. Though I grew up in North Carolina, I’ve lived all over the country at various points. I had the unique opportunity to go to a dual enrollment high school, where you can take college classes at a local college in your junior and senior years. Because of this, I was able to take a unique astronomy class using the college observatory quite early on. I also got to use the college darkroom and spent a lot of time experimenting in there.
Other hobbies I’ve developed in the past year or so include cooking, as we’ve all been home so much recently. I’ve been doing school fully online for the last year but living with a bunch of friends and cooking with them. My favorite cuisine is Indian, and I’ve been learning to make it since there isn’t a good place to get it within a 30 minute drive.
How did you get interested in astronomy?
I got into astronomy because of my interest in photography. I enjoyed using the darkroom and taking photography classes, a lot of it just for fun. I also had been taking a lot of my physics classes, and had access to an observatory. When I saw there was an observational astronomy course that I could take and realized telescopes are just different types of lenses, I was excited to try it out. It was an extension of my interest in physics and photography. My summer research advisor at DAWN is also really into photography, which is a nice connection.
What is your favorite part about DAWN?
I would say that it is really nice to be a part of an institute that is very focused on a specific era in the universe. It feels like we are all trying to answer some of the same questions at the same time and in the same (virtual) place. In that sense it feels different from a university where there is a much wider field of study. It is really cool to see how everyone’s work interconnects by going to the Cake Talks and other larger DAWN meetings.
What motivated you to apply to an international REU?
At the time that I applied (which was over two years ago given the cancellation in 2020), half of my class was applying to study abroad programs (something like 50% of students study abroad in their third year to get the "Grinnell experience”). I knew I wanted to study abroad and go into astronomy, but there were very few opportunities that would allow me to do both. I was torn, because while I was willing to take a semester away from astronomy, I didn’t want to, as it was something I enjoyed studying. I knew that a lot of astronomy research is done internationally, so this program really seemed perfect to spend my summer abroad and see how international collaborations work and perform research relevant to the field I want to go into. Some of those things didn’t pan out in that I am still in the US due to the pandemic, but my experience has definitely given me a better understanding about how international collaborations work.
How has the pandemic impacted your life?
Grinnell sent us home in March 2020 and I spent the summer back home in North Carolina. However, I was able to make it work to live with some friends for the fall semester. Because travel was still somewhat rare at that point, we were able to find discounts on housing and we ended up renting a big house in the mountains of Northern Utah for the semester. We did our online classes from there and got to live together, cook great meals, and explore the area. This was an experience that I never would have had if not for the pandemic, so that was positive outcome. I’ve had a lot of weird adventures that would never have have happened if classes were not remote. On the whole, the pandemic has had a lot of silver linings despite also being a very difficult and strange time.
If you could have any superpower what would it be?
Flying—it seems like so much fun! To be clear, I don’t want to go sky diving—that sounds too dangerous—but if I could fly and have total control and no reason to worry, that would be very cool.
Tell me about your summer research project.
Some recent observations have found that, at early times in the universe, there were large halos of gas around galaxies that cannot be explained entirely by star formation. There are theories on their origin, including possible evidence of ongoing or previously outflowing neutral gas. I’m working with data from ALMA studying a single strong gravitationally lensed galaxy at a redshift of 7 to look at the distribution of the gas in this galaxy. In particular, we are looking for this extended halo of gas and for any signatures of outflowing gas. Earlier results are based on stacking of data from many galaxies, but our study would be one of the first times this has been shown for an individual galaxy.
Where is the first place you want to visit when we finally get you to Copenhagen?
This is a tough question because I know very little about Copenhagen—but I will probably start with a visit to whatever the internet tells me is the best coffee shop in Copenhagen.
