Tell us a bit about yourself!
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. When I graduated from Eagle Rock High School in 2015, I decided I wanted to go to a small liberal arts school. I ended up at Hamilton College in upstate New York, and I also bought my first winter jacket far too late in the game. I enjoy playing volleyball, and whenever I’m in a major city I usually find places to play with locals. Aside from my interests in athletics, I enjoy performing stand up comedy and impromptu skits.
What made you want to do astronomy research?
I was interested in astronomy research because I was generally interested in the increasing excitement of events going on in the field. I am pretty interested in gravitational waves, and I wanted more exposure to the empirical side of things to determine what interests me the most. I remember having lunch with a friend who introduced to me to the recent LIGO discoveries, and I went back to my room surprised, but totally unaware that that same discovery would be relevant to my research not too long later.
What was your Astronomy background before you came to work with Dr. Fong? What have you learned since?
I had absolutely no prior exposure to Astronomy before working with Dr. Fong. This research experience entirely changed my understanding of Astronomy. A lot of my knowledge on Astronomy comes from on the job experience and discussions with other CIEAR REU students. So some things I have been exposed to are: gamma-ray bursts, neutron star mergers, velocity kicks, and globular clusters, as well as a variety of Monte Carlo simulation software developed by other groups.
What was the most frustrating/challenging aspect of research?
As always, the most frustrating thing is always determining what tools are best suited to your problems. In addition, when you know what tools work well with your project, the next challenging step is understanding how to use them to the fullest of their potential. A challenging part of my project was certainly understanding how to customize graphs so that the information presented was both highlighted effectively and presented clearly.
What was the most rewarding part?
The most rewarding part of this project was providing a set of useful tools for other researchers to use. I believe this project is a good stepping stone for others to reference when beginning their analysis of their results from gamma-ray bursts. It was very satisfying creating this because I was constantly motivated by its ability to grow once I had finished my experience.
What were your expectations of how research was conducted prior to joining Dr. Fong’s group? What surprised you most about your research experience?
Prior to joining Dr. Fong’s group, I had many research experiences at my institution. So, I understood that research is typically a rollercoaster ride – a series of hills and valleys and varying speed. Although, what made this experience unique was the level of freedom given to both myself and the project. We both came into this project with an idea in mind of what we would like to see done, but we always agreed that we would probably let the project grow in whatever direction it took us. It was very surprising to me that the project ended up taking life and is still being developed into other avenues.
Name a valuable skill (or multiple!) that you feel you learned from research.
My researched focused heavily on big data manipulation, so I have obtained many skills in managing large data sets and manipulating them effectively. What was very surprising though was that I ended up working with Northwestern’s supercomputer cluster, QUEST, and in the process I informally picked up many Linux abilities. Although program was central to my experience, I think what was most important was my development of organizational, planning, and scientific presentation skills. I use these skills very often, and as a result, I have been able to produce better presentations by organizing my ideas and creating clear figures for others to understand.
What would you tell a student just starting on their first research project?
You have nothing to prove and everything to learn! Ask away and clarify what does not make sense. Also, take the time to invest in your programming skills because they will serve you well throughout your project and in many other scenarios.
What’s next??? (e.g., in your life, what are you moving onto)
I am taking a couple gap years from academia to pursue a professional experience in either software engineering, consulting, or teaching. I am taking this step so that I can transition into graduate school intently focused on what I want to achieve. I hope such an experience will serve me well so that I can take the time to find a graduate program where I will grow the most.