From theatre kid to IT to…

I’m not one of those people that always knew they wanted to be a scientist since they were a kid. I had no idea what to do with myself for a very long time. So, if that is you too, take heart: you can always change your mind about what you’re doing.

From 2006-2010, I completed a B.S. in theatre arts at the University of Oregon. I chose that path because a) I felt a sense of belonging and excitement being involved in theatre in high school, and b) I figured I wanted to do a little of everything, and theatre is a good way to do that. I also added a ‘practical’ business minor (an easy 6 classes) and Spanish, which I’d started in elementary school.

Graduating into the wake of the 2008 recession was not fun. For a while I cobbled together the occasional stage management job and a stint at REI (a great way to stock up on outdoor gear). After that I worked for 2.5 years in IT at the helpdesk for UO’s College of Arts and Sciences, a job I got because I was good with computers. While there, I got more into astronomy and space as a hobby, especially in 2012 when Curiosity landed on Mars. At this time, I was also watching Star Trek for the first time, and helping faculty in the sciences and hearing about their work. After a lot of introspection, I decided I needed a change. I was studying for a networking certification, but I wasn’t excited about advancing in that direction. At the helpdesk, I was doing a lot more management of student employees and managing purchasing. I wanted to do more problem solving, something that would be beneficial to humanity on a larger scale, and that would be challenging enough that there would always be something new to work on. I made the decision to go back to school and pursue science.

…science!

I knew I wanted to pursue astronomy/astrophysics/planetary science. It was something I had been passingly interested in for a long time, but at a low level, so that no one ever encouraged me as a kid to maybe pursue it. I did a lot of research and concluded the best thing to do would be to get a physics degree from UO. I was already a staff member there, so it would be cheap. Unfortunately, the management in CASIT was unwilling to transition my position to a part-time one, so I got a part-time office job in the department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies instead and quit IT. From 2013-2017 I completed another B.S. in physics with a minor in math at UO.

From 2017-2023, I was a grad student at CU Boulder studying planetary science, and I continue there now as an early career researcher. I study the atmospheres of Mars and Venus with photochemical modeling and data analysis. On the martian side, I am a member of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission team, and I work specifically with the Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) team.

More broadly in science, I’m interested in what makes a planet habitable. Maybe it’s all the Star Trek, but my #1 motivating question is to know whether we are alone in the universe. I *feel* that the answer is no, but don’t yet have proof–hence the interest in habitability! I’m also very interested in surface-atmosphere interactions of rocky planets and geology, since we can learn a lot about a planet’s past by examining the rock record.

Outside of science, my favorite things to do are climbing, hiking, camping, skiing (as you’d expect for someone who moved to Colorado!), gardening, board games, D&D, and traveling. Oh yeah, also, national parks. Here’s me enjoying Canyonlands, one of the best parks.