Students Building a Radio Telescope

Hey, all! I’m at the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting in Provo, Utah, and I thought I should post a digital version of my poster since I just took down the physical one. I’m really proud of my four undergrads who not only learned radio astronomy basics themselves in a few short weeks, butContinue reading “Students Building a Radio Telescope”

#ProfLife Year 4, Black Holes on the Radio, and the Return of the Skepchicks

UPDATE (5/7/19): You can find the audio of the NHPR conversation online, as well as a segment I did the next day with Amy Shira Teitel for Minnesota Public Radio! The last post on this page is actually a year old, so time for an update! Things look a little different around here. I’ve setContinue reading “#ProfLife Year 4, Black Holes on the Radio, and the Return of the Skepchicks”

The Sky Crew Takes on Gravitational Waves

Hey all! It’s already late October, which means midterms and student advising in my world. Yesterday, I was once again invited to join NHPR‘s radio program The Exchange to discuss astronomy with host Laura Knoy and astronomers John Gianforte and Mal Cameron. We had a lovely time talking about a number of subjects and spentContinue reading “The Sky Crew Takes on Gravitational Waves”

Are you ready for the Great American Eclipse?

UPDATE (8/17/17): As the date gets closer, please check out my “Procrastinator’s Guide to the Solar Eclipse” on Skepchick!  I’m pretty darn excited. I’ve never seen a total solar eclipse, and I’m getting my first chance to do so, along with many, many residents of North America, on August 21st. I’m heading back to theContinue reading “Are you ready for the Great American Eclipse?”

Noisy Astronomer joins the Sky Guys!

Greetings from overwhelmed-professor-land! Heh, yeah, I’m alive and even occasionally on social media these days. But life as a tenure track professor keeps me pretty busy, even during the summer months. I have some exciting science outreach stuff happening starting this month, starting off with my first appearance on NHPR’s The Exchange on Wednesday, AugustContinue reading “Noisy Astronomer joins the Sky Guys!”

I get Questions

Being the “token astronomer” in some of my circles means that I get asked all kinds of interesting questions. Like this: “You’re an astronomer! Tell me – is it normal for your boobs to actually be separate entities outside your space suit? I mean, I assume that’s for science reasons.” With the picture at rightContinue reading “I get Questions”

I can’t get enough of #GirlsWithToys

And no, as some of you pointed out when this whole thing started, this is not anything lewd. On Saturday morning, I was on a city bus in Pittsburgh heading to the airport. I had just wrapped up a week at the Intel International Science and Engineering Festival where I was the “adult-in-charge” from ourContinue reading “I can’t get enough of #GirlsWithToys”