On June 18, 2020, my Ph.D. advisor Professor Myriam Telus and I presented at Santa Cruz’s first virtual Astronomy on Tap! We discussed what meteorites can tell us about the building blocks of the planets in our Solar System and beyond to exoplanetary systems.
I advised research assistant Kyle Kim (UCSC Undergraduate Class of 2019) on his research project, “X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of meteorite powders before and after outgassing experiments.” Kyle analyzes the meteorite powders before and after I perform my outgassing experiments to help us understand the effects of outgassing on the mineralogy of our samples. It has been a blast having the opportunity to advise Kyle on this project and to show him how to perform the outgassing experiments. In November 2019, Kyle presented the preliminary results from his XRD analysis at the inaugural Bay Area Planetary Meeting at Stanford University. Kyle is now a graduate student at University of Maryland.
In May 2019, I spoke at Astronomy on Tap-South Bay. Astronomy on Tap (AoT) is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing astronomy enthusiasts of all backgrounds together in a casual environment to talk science! I spoke about what super-Earth exoplanets are, how scientists model their atmospheres and how we can use experiments with meteorites to help inform these planets’ atmospheric compositions. I had a great time getting to chat with the attendees about exoplanets and meteorites!
On April 22, I, along with many of my colleagues at Carnegie, participated in the March for Science, a global event in which people from cities all over the world marched in support of the importance of funding and communicating science. We began the day early, enjoying breakfast and making posters at the Carnegie Institution for Science's headquarters on P Street. We then walked down to the Washington Monument to participate in a rally that championed the invaluable role science plays in our day-to-day lives. Despite the rainy weather, we had a great time joining thousands of fellow marchers in support of science!
Group photo from the breakfast at the Carnegie Institution for Science #CarnegieMarches