TAURUS at McDonald Observatory!

TAURUS had an epic adventure this past weekend, traveling the seven hours (by car) from Austin to McDonald Observatory in West Texas.  We were scheduled for two nights of observing on the 2.7m Harlan Smith Telescope using the Coudé spectrograph, but this was also an opportunity for our scholars to take in the sites, the dark night sky, and visit some other telescopes while partaking in a professional astronomical observing run.

We arrived Friday evening on the mountain and got our bearings, walking the grounds and taking in the night sky.  Unfortunately the moon was out and so were some clouds!  The scholars retired early after watching some movies, prepping for the next day.

We toured the Hobby Eberly Telescope (HET) on Saturday afternoon, seeing the primary mirror first hand.  Jordyn also tested out the azimuthal mount by swinging it around a few times!

The team was eagerly anticipating the first night of observations on the 2.7m.  As we watched the sunset, we got a special treat.  Anita Cochran, the observatory Assistant Director and TAURUS team observer, set up the telescope so we could view Jupiter through the eye piece!  It was like a textbook image (see below!).  Everyone took turns "driving" the telescope through the night.  Oscar, Jordyn and Patrick took the trophy home for Saturday though, because they finished it out with Anita at sunrise.  Everyone else didn't make it quite as far...

Sunday saw a brief tour of the historic 1939 2.1m Otto Struve telescope, and then excitement brewed because the moon was rising later that night... and it payed off, because everyone spent the hour after sunset being dazzled by the dark skies and the Milky Way.  But soon, Anita enticed us all to come inside and see Saturn through the eye piece -- another textbook image! Incredible!

Even though the drive was long (very long), the trip was spectacular and well worth it!  We hope to see the TAURUS scholars back here soon!

Scholar Spotlight: Analis Lawrence

The fifth TAURUS Scholar Spotlight of the summer focuses on Analis Lawrence, who recently graduated from Florida International University with a major in Physics and minors in Astronomy and Mathematics.  She will be attending the University of Florida as a graduate student in the Physics Department in the fall of 2018.  This summer Analis is working with Prof. Brendan Bowler on the galactic kinematics of exoplanet host stars using Gaia as part of the TAURUS research program at The University of Texas at Austin. He sat down with Analis recently for this interview.

BB: What inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy or science in general?  What draws you to science in the first place?

AL: A general passion for learning inspired me to pursue a career in astrophysics. But I have been most enchanted by reading and hearing about Albert Einstein’s work and his thought experiments on gravity, space, and time. I’ve been interested in science since a young age but not physics and astronomy until later in my academic career when I started going to schools that were STEM-focused.  Exposure to physics for me came once I took a high school physics course, and later in college, when I got involved with the astronomy club at the Florida International University.  I also became interested in astronomy through documentaries. 

BB: Please tell me more about yourself. What do you do for fun?

AL: For fun, I enjoy endurance running, playing and watching tennis, and painting when I have the time. My normal routine is a six-mile run in the mornings, which I do a few times each week.  I also enjoy spending time with my friends and my loved ones.

BB: In your opinion, what qualities makes astronomy so unique and compelling?

AL: What makes astrophysics so compelling to me is our insignificant size in the universe, yet how much space and time there is to explore.  It’s easy to forget until you look up. I like that astronomy ponders big questions that are truly amazing, from the origins of the universe to the nature of black holes to the question “Are we alone?”  What I find most appealing is space-time physics and cosmology from a theoretical perspective, which is the direction I aim to pursue in graduate school.  I’m looking forward to exploring the theoretical astrophysics groups at UF.

BB: Is there anything that you’re particularly proud of that you’d like to share— for example, something that’s happened along your academic or personal trajectory?

AL: I am most grateful for two REU’s at the University of Chicago. During the summer of 2016, I calibrated a photomultiplier tube for a liquid Xenon detector for their dark matter group with advisors Luca Grandi and Richard Saldanha. And the summer after, with Hsiao-Wen Chen, I carried out a statistical modeling study on highly ionized oxygen in star-forming galaxy halos. I then compared my model to observations of low-redshift galaxies from Hubble.

BB: What mentors, teachers, or role models have been the most inspiring to you in your life?

AL: All of my teachers, coaches, parents, and family have been inspiring in my life.   My most influential mentors have been in college, especially the particle physics and astrophysics professors at FIU.  My mentor at FIU was Dr. Boeglin who studies nuclear physics. And Dr. Webb’s astronomy lectures and star parties first got me interested in the field as early as freshman year.

Documentaries and books by theoretical physicist Brian Greene have been especially captivating, and I have loved listening to his World Science Festival discussions with scientists and philosophers.  I appreciate the way he’s able to simplify complex concepts for the public.  All of these helped inspire me to change my major. 

My high school physics teacher Mr. Smith also jumpstarted my interest in physics. He gave me an appreciation for critical thinking and brought much energy and enthusiasm to learning physics.


BB: What challenges and obstacles have you faced in your career? How have you overcome these challenges? 

AL: Attending schools in an underprivileged area has made me a hard worker and has taught me to try to think outside of the box, or to better realize that there is no box. Other schools tended to have more, enhanced resources for learning, and students there may have been introduced to physics earlier in their careers.  But I was fortunate to attend schools with great STEM programs and teachers who exposed me to new opportunities and an interdisciplinary education.  

BB: You’ll be heading to the University of Florida for graduate school next month— congratulations!  What are you most looking forward to at UF?

AL: I am mostly looking forward to meeting the faculty in the astrophysics theory group and the possibility to explore the different research opportunities, including LIGO.  I’m also looking forward to TA-ing and meeting my fellow grad students.

BB: What advice would you give to high school and undergraduate students of color interested in following your path?

AL: Keep your curiosity alive and be yourself.  Always work hard.

BB: What are your future and long-term career goals?

AL: I hope to become a professor. My interests are in space-time, black holes, and cosmology. Somewhere along the line, I want to help fix the minority and gender gap in physics education and careers.

Scholar Spotlight: Gerlinder Difo Cheri

The fourth TAURUS scholar spotlight of the summer focuses on Gerlinder Difo Cheri, a rising senior at the University of the Virgin Islands. Gerlinder is working with Andrew Vanderburg this summer, searching for evidence of planetary destruction around the burned out remnants of stars like our Sun.

This summer, Gerlinder Difo Cheri joins us at the University of Texas at Austin from more than two thousand miles away in the US Virgin Islands. Coming to UT Austin poses both challenges and opportunities by virtue of the university’s sheer size: the number of students at UT Austin (about 51,000) is a bit more than half the total population of the US Virgin Islands (100,000). This summer, Gerlinder is making the most of the opportunities and resources in pursuit of his goals and ambitions.

Gerlinder grew up on a steady diet of science and technology related media. He recalls being inspired at an early age by scientists he saw on television, like Bill Nye the Science Guy, who “just went out and solved things.” Gerlinder’s interest in astronomy seemed natural to him. “How can you not be interested in astronomy?” he asks. These science and engineering role models drove him to enroll at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and begin studying computer science.

Once he arrived, Gerlinder found the professors at UVI to be valuable role models as well. Before enrolling there, his role models were scientists and engineers (fictional or otherwise) he saw on television, ranging from Neil Degrasse Tyson to Tony Stark. But when he arrived at UVI, for the first time he met people who lived on his island and were pursuing his passion. Gerlinder found it indispensable to ask his professors about the challenges and struggles they faced.

Despite Gerlinder’s interest in astronomy, he was unable to dive in when he first enrolled at the UVI because at the time, the school did not offer any astronomy courses. Therefore, when the University of the Virgin Islands offered their first astronomy class ever, Gerlinder was excited to sign up. From there, Gerlinder took a leap and applied to be a TAURUS scholar at UT, which brought him here.

“The future of astronomy is beautiful and expansive,” Gerlinder says. He sees and values how astronomy can capture the public imagination, like how his imagination was captured as a child learning about science and technology from communicators on television, but recognizes that initiative is required to overcome barriers. When asked what advice he might give to a younger student in a similar position to himself, Gerlinder says “You have to actively search for what you want to do, and don’t just wait for it to fall into your lap.” If you take the first step, you might just find yourself studying the stars.

Scholar Spotlight: Oscar Cantua

The third TAURUS Scholar Spotlight of the summer is all about Oscar Cantua, who is a physics major at the University of Texas San Antonio just 100 miles down the road from us in Austin.  Oscar is working with Dr. Jorge Zavala this summer on the characterization of some of the Universe's most luminous and dusty galaxies.

This summer Oscar Cantua is joining us from a familiar institution that is also a part of the UT System: the University of Texas at San Antonio. Despite being in the same state — less than 100 miles from his hometown and in the same educational system — this research experience in TAURUS represents a new world of opportunities to pursue his future career in astronomy, Oscar says.

Oscar’s interest in astronomy goes back to his childhood when he first moved to the US from Mexico and used to read a lot of books to learn English. He soon realized that science books, and particularly astronomy-related stories were the most interesting to him. Some years later, astronomy went from being only a hobby to a potential professional career after he spent a summer working at the NASA Johnson Space Center (yes, NASA!) as part of the Texas High School Aerospace Program. Nowadays at UTSA, Oscar is a physics major with a minor in astronomy. 

Oscar is part of the UTSA’s Top Scholar program, which combines a comprehensive four-year merit-based scholarship with personalized experiences in academics, leadership and community service. Thanks to this opportunity, he was able to become involved in scientific research at an early stage in his college career, analyzing data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory in order to study the nature of binary systems in nearby galaxies, under the supervision of Prof. Eric Schlegel. This summer at UT Austin, Oscar is jumping wavelengths from the very short and energetic part of the spectrum to the longest wavelengths observations achieved with the most powerful radio telescopes in the world, in order to identify and study the most distant dusty star-forming galaxies in the Universe. 

While looking back in the past, Oscar realized that it has not been easy to reach this point in his professional life.  Being a first generation college student, living far away from his family, and having to work while studying. Now he is closer to his dream of going to graduate school, not only with passion and enthusiasm for astrophysics but also with a lot of knowledge and experience. 

When I asked Oscar to give advice to young people, particularly to those belonging to underrepresented groups like him, he simply said "never stop chasing your dreams.”

Scholar Spotlight: Gabriella Sanchez

This week's TAURUS Scholar Spotlight focuses in Gabriella Sanchez, a rising senior at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.  Gabriella's research focuses on gas outflows in nearby galaxies.  She recently sat down with her research mentor at UT, Dr. Justin Spilker, to discuss her path to TAURUS and what's in store for her future.

JS: Who are you/where are you from?

GS: I’m Gabriella Sanchez. 21 years old. I was born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii’s most populated island. I am the 5th of seven children. And will be the second to graduate from college next year. I’m majoring in astrophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

JS: What inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy or science?

GS: Honestly, I thought it would be pretty cool. I was always interested in NASA and outer space. To me, astrophysics seemed like a challenge and the most interesting major of my choices. I wanted to pursue a career that made me think critically and that I would always be fascinated by. In addition, I specifically chose astrophysics because I was interested in astronomy, but I wanted to learn/use a lot of math (I like math) and physics concepts.

JS: What aspects of your life do you think led you to do astronomy?

GS: As a child, I was always curious. I think I thought about space a lot and always had the need to know what else is out there in the universe. My favorite movie at one point in elementary was Armageddon. I thought it was absolutely amazing! Of course, now that I’m more informed I see that it’s full of inaccuracies, but still… it’s a great movie! And perhaps the little kid in me dreamed of being an astronaut or discovering new objects in space.

JS: What are you most proud of so far in your life / career?

GS: I’m most proud of a lot of things that I’ve experienced so far this year. First, I’m proud of where I am mentally. I feel I grew so much as a person and an adult. I’m proud I finally took initiative in applying to REUs and got accepted into 3 out of 5. I’m proud I’ve made it even this far in my college education, and glad at how much I was able to push myself. Lastly, I’m incredibly proud of myself for accepting this TAURUS internship and finally braving the experience of leaving home and being on my own for the first time. It’s been one of the greatest experiences in my life so far!

JS: Wow, hopefully this summer doesn't disappoint! What mentors, teachers, or role models have been the most inspiring to you in your life?

GS: My biggest role models have definitely been my parents. They both didn’t have the opportunity to get a college education, didn’t come from “well-to-do” families. For so many years, they have struggled and sacrificed a lot, raising seven kids, but they always reminded us to work hard and to never do anything less than our best. Seeing them work so hard, and continue to do so, to provide for their family, and being able to give myself the opportunity for a better future and career has been my greatest motivation in life.

JS: Where to next? Where do you see yourself in 5, 10 years?

GS: In five years or so I see myself with better experience in the research field and working with other astronomers. I hope to be working on my masters/PhD. I don’t have an exact plan to follow. I’d like to take my time and experience different fields of work. I’d also like to start a family sooner rather than later in my life. At the moment, I’m looking towards having a career outside academia but staying within the astronomy community.