TAURUS Scholar Spotlight: Courtney Reed

Courtney Reed joins us this summer from Amherst College in Massachusetts where she is a rising junior majoring in physics and astronomy. Courtney is thriving in her first research experience using cosmological simulations to understand galaxy evolution in our galactic neighborhood, the Local Group. She is studying the theoretical formation of extremely dim and extended low-mass galaxies by identifying analogues of a particularly puffy Milky Way satellite galaxy in simulations. She has already identified a promising simulated analogue galaxy, and her research mentor, Dr. Jenna Samuel, is excited to see where her research will take her! Dr. Samuel sat down with Courtney recently to learn a bit more about her background, interests, and outlook on the future.

Courtney has always had an interest in science beginning with stargazing with her father and frequenting the local science museum at home in Pennsylvania. She gravitated towards physics and astronomy after watching the movie Hidden Figures and seeing her own identity as a Black woman in science represented on screen and at NASA. Since then, she has embedded herself into science and advocacy by volunteering at the very science museum where her interests began to introduce younger generations to science, serving on the NAACP Youth Council in high school, and joining the Black Student Union and other groups dedicated to uplifting underrepresented students in STEM at Amherst.

Looking towards the future, Courtney is hopeful that physics and astronomy are changing for the better – she and other TAURUS scholars will bring much needed new perspectives to the field and our collective body of knowledge. Such enhanced representation of traditionally marginalized people will bring with it a diversity of discoveries that are otherwise unexplored. Courtney also looks forward to more culturally conscious advances in astronomy, particularly with regards to respecting Indigenous lands and traditions in where and how we go about our science.

 

Courtney’s academic pursuits aren’t limited to physics and astronomy though. She has a strong interest in the knowledge, ideologies, and hierarchies of race and gender that physicists and astronomers must navigate in their day-to-day scientific work. Recently, Courtney created an inspiring syllabus for a course on how race and identity interact with the formation of knowledge in physics and astronomy, flawlessly interweaving theories of feminist technoscience and epistemology in modern scientific practice.

 

Outside of work, Courtney enjoys baking and running. Her sister got her started with baking, and recently she’s gotten into cake decorating. She was on the track team at Amherst early on in college, but now finds that she enjoys running for fun in her free time more than competing.

 

Courtney acknowledges that the lack of representation of women of color in physics and astronomy is still a challenge, but she is determined to pursue her interests in spite of it. She wants to go to graduate school after college, where she will become one of the fewer than 100 Black women with PhDs in physics and astronomy. Courtney isn’t yet sure what she will do after grad school, but she’s adamant that her main goal for her future is to be happy and use whatever position she has to uplift marginalized people within her community.