Scholar Spotlight: Miguel Gutierrez

This is the fifth TAURUS Scholar Spotlight of the summer. Dr. Ben Tofflemire sat down with his mentee Miguel Gutierrez to learn more about his motivation for studying astronomy. At UT he is working on the evolution of very young stars.

Miguel Gutierrez joins the TAURUS program from the Florida Institute of Technology where he is a rising senior working towards a double degree in Astronomy/Astrophysics and Mathematical Sciences. Miguel has been active in particle and plasma physics research at his home institution but is excited for the opportunity to try on research as a full time job this summer. Miguel’s project focuses on determining how young stars interact with their protoplanetary by analyzing high-spectral-resolution, near-infrared spectra. 

BT: What led to chose your major and what do you like about it?

MG: One of the things that drew me to Florida Tech was that they offer a degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics, which is rare. I was always interested in studying space and stuff and knew that I wanted to pursue those interests in college, rather than getting a degree in Physics and waiting until graduate school to do real astronomy. Plus, the department is great and I’ve really enjoyed the Astronomy courses they offer. The Math double major has also been cool because I get a lot more of the background in statistics and math theory that has made my physics and astronomy courses a lot easier. 

BT: What led you to apply for the TAURUS program?

MG: I was interested in doing some kind of research internship to see how I liked doing full time research, mainly as a way to figure out what career path is best for me after I graduate. I searched for anything I could find that was astronomy and astrophysics related and came across TAURUS. It sounded fun and seemed really cool so I applied to it and got in, and I was really excited about it! 

BT: Who have been some inspiring mentors/role models in your life?

MG: Recently, two of my professors at Florida Tech, Dr. Perez (UT Alum) and Dr. Caballero, have both been really inspirational and incredibly helpful. It’s not all the time that you get to have role models that are minorities, especially in this field, so it’s been super great to see really successful people that I’ve been able to relate to on that level. Dr. Perez is my academic advisor and I’ve taken two of his classes, which have been two of my favorite classes. He’s a really good professor. It’s just really cool to have someone that cares about teaching and is super passionate about the subjects he teaches. It really makes a difference, since I walk out of every lecture excited a little bit more about science. 

BT: What advice would you give to high school or early undergraduate students who are interested in the science career path?

MG: Don’t be discouraged if it gets hard. I feel like a lot of people tend to cut themselves short and say, “oh I could never study that,” or “I could never do that,” because at some point they had a bad experience with a class or a person. But if you try hard enough at something, you can always do it. The way people get good at things is by doing them a lot. Math is a good example. I’m only good at math because I’ve taken so many classes. I’m not great at mental math, so if we were basing it purely on that, then I’m bad at math, right, so if it’s is something that you like, then go for it. Don’t let the difficulty of it scare you.

BT: What are some of your interests outside of school and astronomy?

MG: I definitely play a lot of video games, not as much as I would like to actually, which is a surprising thing to say, you don’t hear that a lot, but I really enjoy them. I like a lot of different types of games, but the ones that resonate the most with me are the ones that are really story intensive. I like watching movies too. I like pretty much everything, from Marvel movies to indie movies. I’m interested to see Midsommar, because it’s by the same director of Hereditary, which was one of my favorite movies of last year. I’ve also recently picked up the guitar. I really like music. I’ve been in band since 5th grade, and I really want to keep that going on the side to distract me from work in a way that feels more constructive than video games. 

--- 

At the program’s halfway point, Miguel had made great progress and will produce some exciting results by the end of the Summer.

Research Pro-Tip #2: How to start writing a Scientific Article

This is the second research Pro-Tip of the summer, talking about how to approach the monumental task of writing your results up in a report.  Specifically, we're talking about publication of a Research Note of the American Astronomical Society, which is a little less monstrous than a refereed scientific paper, but a lot of the same concepts apply.

Not sure how to get started on that paper/article/research note? Have no fear!  Today I want to give you some tips on how to get started with writing.

Scientific writing tends to be a bit more dense than creative writing and a bit closer to journalism-type writing.  There’s no right way or wrong way to write scientifically, which can make starting quite difficult and nebulous.  The first tip I’ll give is to start by reading other papers similar to those you might anticipate writing.  If these were long-format journal articles, I’d point you to the papers you’ve been reading as references to understand paper structure, the types of calculations that are discussed, and what’s left out of the discussion.  In the case of research notes, it’s more useful to have example research notes than complete papers, so below is a list of some research notes published in the last year (**the first two were works published by Aimee Schechter and Laney Wicker, two recent UT undergraduates!).

Schechter & Casey (2018)**

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/aaf5cf

Wicker & Casey (2019)**

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab298e

Abramson (2018)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/aada8b

Zink et al. (2019)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab0a02

Pasham & Wevers (2019)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab304a

Dingler & Cuntz (2019)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab2c07

Konar & Chahal (2019)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab2c06

Beichman et al. (2019)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab2c9d

I encourage you to READ them.  This doesn’t mean you’ll understand every concept presented in each note because 1000 words isn’t a lot of room to explain your whole field.  Instead, as you read, try to diagram the similarities and differences between these articles.  Do they all start out in a similar way with a broad statement about their area of research?  What might that statement look like for the research you’ve been doing?  Take a stab at jotting down a few ideas even if you don’t know if you have it exactly right.  Try to go through the entire note while noticing the pattern of presenting data, describing a figure, and then drawing conclusions.  Are there key phrases that are used by many of the notes above? In what ways was the structure of these notes similar?  Did any of the differences surprise you?  The key to success with scientific writing is to emulate others until you get the hang of it yourself (often this takes years and years!).

Next, I’d encourage you to keep in mind: perfect is the enemy of good.  A lot of students struggle to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) for fear that what they write won’t be correct and will need to be re-written.  That is not only a super common feeling, but one that doesn’t really go away even after you’ve been doing this for years!  But sitting in that fear is not what will get the job done.  In order to practice writing, I encourage you to each take a period of the day (maybe 30 minutes this week, ramping up to 1 hour next week) to free-associate about your work.  This means keeping your fingers moving on the keyboard, writing out sentences, no matter what — even if what you have to say isn’t perfectly worded, grammatically correct, or eloquent.  You're just putting words on the page.  Revising a paper or research note with existing text is SO MUCH easier than working with a blank page.  Just. Keep. Writing.

Once you have words on a page — celebrate!!  And then send them to your advisor. Even if you’d feel embarrassed to do so! I promise they do not have to be perfect for them to read it over.  It’s not a book report where you’ll be graded on quality.  Your supervisor will just be thrilled that you wrote stuff down, and they will be extremely helpful in the revision process, helping you cite relevant papers, helping with the logical flow, etc.  Often they don’t know how to help you best until there’s a working draft in-hand, which can often lead to more fruitful discoveries in the revision process, but that crucial first step belongs to you!

Last thing I’ll mention today is the mechanics of writing a research note.  If you visit the submission info page here:

https://journals.aas.org/research-note-preparation-guidelines/

You’ll see that you can submit research notes either as Microsoft Word documents or in LaTeX (or Overleaf which is a form of LaTeX).  What’s LaTeX?!  It’s the word processor of choice for astronomers (and physicists), which is more like coding up a PDF document than designing it in a fancy graphical user interface.  Working in LaTeX can be intimidating, but if you’re eager to learn how it works I’d like to point you to some tutorials:

https://www.latex-tutorial.com/tutorials/

And here’s a link to overleaf, which is how lots of papers and notes are written these days, online, so you don’t have to bother with installing everything on your local machine:

https://www.overleaf.com

You can prepare your research note in Word, LaTeX or Overleaf, but I would encourage you to talk to your advisor first it before committing!  But in the meantime, don’t hesitate to get started in WHATEVER word processor you’re most comfortable using.  The important thing is to just keep writing!!

Scholar Spotlight: Oscar Chávez Ortiz

Our fourth TAURUS Scholar Spotlight of the summer is all about Oscar Chávez Ortiz, an astronomy and physics student at UC Berkeley. This summer he's working with Dr. Micaela Bagley on studying galaxies in the local Universe that might serve as good analogues to the first galaxies that formed 13 billion years ago. Dr. Bagley sat down with Oscar to learn more about his journey to UT.

Oscar A. Chávez Ortiz joins us from UC Berkeley, where he will be finishing his last semester this fall. Oscar remembers being interested in astronomy ever since elementary school, when he would go straight to the Space and Science section of his school book fairs and read everything he could find. At Berkeley, Oscar has worked on projects involving modeling Supernova 1987A and creating composite spectra of galaxies observed as part of the MOSDEF survey. He’s excited to spend the summer as a TAURUS scholar, discovering what it’s like to do research without having to simultaneously balance classes and other commitments. 

MB: What interests or excites you about science?

OCO: I like how science in general is about discovering how things work and how each piece connects to the bigger picture. With each topic, there’s always something to explore to a deeper level. It’s exciting to work with bits and pieces of information, like clues that you can tie back together. That was always me, when I see something happening I want to know what’s causing it and to understand the “why”.  This is one of the things that draws me to science in general and astronomy in particular, trying to tackle questions like “How did galaxies form?” all the way up to “How did the whole universe come to be?”

MB: What does it mean to you to be a scientist?

OCO: There are some big, well-known names in science: Bohr, Planck, Einstein, and many others. They’ve all done great work and made big contributions to their fields, but I don’t think science is a sole genius coming up with breakthroughs. I think science is more like the quote from Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” You start with a puzzle, you take it a little bit further, expanding on what previous people have done and gradually building up to the bigger picture. We’re always collaborating because we have to, space is so big! It’s mind boggling just how much is out there, how could any one person study it all by themselves? Collaboration is definitely key and is what it means to me in becoming a scientist. 

MB: Where would you like to take your passion for astronomy? Where would you like your career to go? 

OCO: I would like to work towards a teaching position at a university or community college. I often hear from friends outside of STEM fields that their math or science classes made them leave STEM fields. This kinda saddens me because I think that everyone has the ability to do what we’re doing. All it takes is having professors who can make the topics fun and accessible and the learning experience collaborative and inclusive for people to strive. When teaching isn’t the main focus, its natural that the teaching suffers and by consequence the students suffer. I really want to become a professor that supports my students and puts them in a good position regardless of the path they take; be it STEM or otherwise. And another reason I would like to become a professor is that there is not a lot of representation for Latinos in astronomy. There are very few people I feel I can look up to. I often have a hard time relating to the other students at Berkeley, and I don’t think they can relate to me, especially given my undocumented status. When we talk about our experiences, I think they can understand and empathize, but it’s completely different to actually feel what I feel, what I’ve felt essentially all my life. I’m missing a community, a network. I want to give a younger version of me a role model to look up to. I want to be able to show them that this is possible and that you are not alone. 

MB: What do you like to do when you’re not astronomying? 

OCO: I love soccer. I’m a huge soccer fan. I’ve played it ever since I was 7, and I used to train every second of every day. After high school I sort of stopped playing while I figured out what kind of commitment college would be. It was honestly a weird transition for me since soccer had been a big part of my life. But, while at Berkeley, I was able to get back to it. I’ve started my own teams to play in Berkeley’s intramural league multiple times. I also like watching movies, playing video games, and exploring new places and experiences. School and research are of course important, but they can’t be everything. We all need ways to let off steam and relax, and to find meaning and community outside of work.

Scholar Spotlight: Derek Zapata

This is the third of eight TAURUS Scholar Spotlights of 2019.  Derek Zapata is an undergraduate astrophysics major at Colby College and is working with Dr. Justin Spilker this summer studying galaxies transitioning to quiescence.

After growing up and going to school down the road in San Antonio, Derek Zapata has spent the last couple years all the way off in Maine, where he will be a junior physics major at Colby College starting in the fall. This summer we're lucky to have him back "deep in the heart" as a TAURUS scholar in Austin. Derek's research project this summer involves using ALMA to understand a type of faraway galaxy on the brink of shutting off star formation. Below Derek tells us a bit about how he got involved in astronomy and the TAURUS program.

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

DZ: Since I was a child, I’ve always been attracted to sciences because of the allure of learning and exploration, and I went through many different scientific interests as I aged, uncovering my passion for astronomy as a preteen. Astronomy is alluring to me because of its mysteries and its potential for discovery. The idea of uncovering principles and finding things that humanity will never touch, yet are so important to daily life, leaves me with confidence that hard work and passion can not only answer the largest questions we will ever have, but will also contribute to the development of society and humanity.

JS: What are you most proud of?

DZ: I’m most proud of the educational opportunities that I’ve unlocked and participated in over the past few years. Going into my junior year of undergrad, I’m still thrilled that I have the opportunity to study my favorite subject at a prestigious institution. Though much of this is due to my hard work, having a close network of family, friends, and educators that support and encourage me has meant the world to me. I also am very proud to be a TAURUS scholar, and to contribute to real astronomical research so early in my academic career! Lastly, I’m very proud to be one of the few STEM scholars in my family, and one of the things that helps me most along the way is knowing that my effort will make my family proud.

JS: Do you have any advice for high school and undergraduate students of color interested in following your path?

DZ: There are two things that I’ve learned to do in undergrad that have greatly contributed to my success as a physics/astronomy student. The first is to ask questions. For some reason, our culture views asking questions and not knowing things as a sign of weakness, and this point of view can’t be further from the truth! Everybody has trouble with something, and there’s nothing wrong with asking for an explanation or for a bit of help if a concept didn’t make sense the first time. The second is to make friends and get to know the people around you, specifically to form a study group or network of peers with which you can exchange ideas. I’ve found that this not only makes homework and studying easier, but also helps to reinforce knowledge and opens up new ways of looking at ideas. Getting to know people is also a great way to find opportunities for things like internships and research positions.

Scholar Spotlight: Luna Urias

This is the second of eight TAURUS Scholar Spotlights of 2019.  Luna Urias is an undergraduate astrophysics major at Texas Tech University and is working with Dr. Jorge Zavala this summer on dust-obscured starburst galaxies.

About 333 miles northwest from Austin, in Lubbock, Texas (yes, still Texas!), Texas Tech University sits, where Luna Urias is majoring in Astrophysics. Luna (which means “Moon” in Spanish!) grew up in Van Horn, Texas, under the dark skies that have fascinated and inspired a lot of people for years.  Indeed, she remembers being amazed while looked through a small telescope that her parents owned. Ever since, she has been interested in science and astronomy. In the last year, she started a research project at her home institution in the exciting field of exoplanets, and this summer, Luna is “looking” through the eyes of ALMA -- one of the most powerful telescopes in the world -- to study faraway galaxies. Below, she tells us more about herself, her path to TAURUS, and more:

JZ: What inspired you to pursue a career in science?

LU: My parents are what inspired me to pursue a career in science. Growing up watching them achieve their goals and advance in their careers helped me believe that I could do it too. They have always pushed me beyond my comfort zone so that I could experience new things. Some of my fondest memories are of watching space documentaries, discussing the latest scientific discoveries, and our family evenings outside with our telescope. When I told them I wanted to pursue something in science they were incredibly supportive and have continued to be an important part of why I’ve made it this far.

JZ: What are you most proud of?

LU: Lately, I’ve been pretty proud of myself. I grew up in a small town with limited science and technology resources which made pursuing a career in science a difficult transition. A lot of late study nights have led me to where I am now, working with TAURUS!

JZ: What advice would you give to young people interested in following a science career?

LU: Just go for it, you will never know if you’re able to do it until you try.

This TAURUS program represents a new world of opportunities for Luna’s future career in science. In just a few weeks, she will come back to West Texas and visit McDonald Observatory. She will be under those dark skies that inspired her a long time ago, but this time, taking astronomical observations at a professional telescope. Luna is a clear inspiration not only to her two younger siblings but to all young people and, particularly, to those belonging to underrepresented groups.

Research Pro-Tip #1: Write things down!

This is the first research pro-tip for the TAURUS blog! We hope to continue these into the future at random points throughout the summer, and maybe even during the school year too.  The first one is brought to you by TAURUS Director, Caitlin Casey.

Some pages in a research notebook of mine from my undergrad years!

The first tip I have for our TAURUS Scholars as they really dig into their research projects is to WRITE. THINGS. DOWN.  Every time you have a meeting with your supervisor and they’re explaining how to do something, *take notes*.  I know some of y’all have awesome memories, but I promise something will get lost through the cracks, and as you age, your ability to remember things *rapidly* diminishes while the level of complexity of the things you need to remember *rapidly* increases.  So, it’s good to start the habit early.

To speak from the experience of a research supervisor and someone who regularly talks to other professors/research supervisors, I can say that writing things down reflects well on you: it sends the message that you value your supervisor's time and will make every effort to absorb as much of what they say in any interaction you have.  So it's not just about how much you can or can't remember from a conversation!

Research lab books are a fantastic tool.  While I, too, love gadgets, there’s often nothing better than pen and paper.  I still have my research lab notebook from my undergrad days, and I do, actually, occasionally look back on it!  Why? I used it to work out lots of fundamental math that I sometimes forget on a day to day basis, but I know exactly where to look back to find the calculation written out as it makes sense to me.

Also, there will be some point during this summer where you hit a road block and need to re-do some of your work; that’s totally normal and expected in the research process! But it is *way* easier and more efficient for you to go back and re-do things when you’ve written every step of your analysis down, even if it’s really quick scribbles only you would understand.

While those quick scribbles are totally a valid form of note-taking and should be included in your lab books (nothing’s too informal to go in there!), you should, at least for 10 minutes once a week, pause to write down a version of all the analysis you’ve done that week, just so you have a bit more of a lasting record.  Think: are you going to remember what the random scribbles mean 7 weeks from now?  Probably not so… do yourself a favor.

Last comment about writing things down: not only does it make it easier and more efficient to do analysis, but it also makes it much easier to write up formally after you’ve done the analysis since your calculations are well documented.  When it eventually comes time for a referee report, and in the event you need to rework a calculation with revised assumptions, there your notebook will be to save you from the headache of digging up old, uncommented code from months ago.

In short, write things down. It's never too late to start! :)

Scholar Spotlight: Alexis Lupo

This is the first TAURUS Scholar Spotlight of 2019!  Alexis Lupo comes to TAURUS and UT Austin from one of our sister institutions, the University of Texas El Paso.  This summer she is working with Dr. Will Best on understanding binary brown dwarfs and low-mass stars.  Dr. Best shares with us Alexis' path to UT!

Alexis joins us this summer from El Paso, where she grew up and now attends the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). She is excited by the opportunity to get hands-on experience with astronomy at UT Austin. Alexis describes research as, “A very personal thing because it’s a great way to challenge yourself and grow,” and she is eager to learn how to apply knowledge she’s learned in classes to a project. TAURUS will be her first full-time experience in research.

Alexis names a few sources of inspiration for her fascination with astronomy. Her parents were each in the first generation in their families to get college degrees, so they have always emphasized the importance of education and hard work. At the same time, her parents encouraged her to pursue things she enjoys. Her father is a "huge space buff,” she says, and she remembers being glued to the TV as a child watching space documentaries. This fueled Alexis' excitement for astronomy and learning about the universe. A professor at UTEP, Dr. Héctor Noriega-Mendoza, has also motivated Alexis with his passion for astronomy. “He’s been a huge help to me and a huge inspiration,” says Alexis. "He’s very passionate about what he does.” She also looks up to the astronaut Chris Hadfield, and is motivated by his advice to pursue your dreams. “I can’t imagine anything else that I would like to do more” than study astronomy, she says.

Alexis enjoys exploring the world through walking, drawing, and reading, especially science fiction and fantasy. "It’s fascinating to read and get into somebody else’s mind,” she says. Alexis enjoys creating stories and illustrating the characters.

Alexis has completed her junior year at UTEP and is planning to apply to graduate programs in astronomy this coming Fall. She has goals beyond graduate school, too: she looks forward to applying for jobs at NASA. “I would love to do research for them, and hopefully one day to be an astronaut.” With that in mind, she’s also been learning how to fly single-engine airplanes, and is working towards her pilot’s license. She is thinking about joining the Air Force after graduate school in order to get more experience flying.


El Paso, as an “engineering-focused town,” has few avenues for a young scientist to pursue astronomy. UTEP offers only two astronomy courses, and as Alexis puts it, “It has been difficult to find opportunities in astronomy for me back at home that I can learn from and grow from as a scientist.” So Alexis found what she needed in the TAURUS program, which she says has drawn her out of her comfort zone but is a vital step in the direction she wants to go. She only heard about TAURUS on the day the application was due, but she put together the application on short notice and here she is. Alexis encourages younger students who are interested in astronomy to, “Pursue their dream no matter what, and apply for every opportunity they can get their hands on. You have to search for your own opportunities if they’re not presented to you.”