"Goth Mrs. Frizzle"
Scientific Writing
I'm a proud member of AstroBites, & their previous Policy chair! My articles cover everything from distant explosions to the policies that govern your everyday view of the sky.
Browse around!- Hypervelocity Stars, TŻOs, Bumpy Superluminous Supernovae, and Pulsar Planets May All Share An Origin
- A Machine Learning View of Supernova GWs
- Minutes after Death, Reincarnation Can Begin
- The First Inference of A Magnetic Field Inside A Main Sequence Star
- What Goes Bump in the Night: Superluminous Supernovae Show Bumps and Wiggles at Late Times
- Interpreting The Relics of Stellar Burials
- Using LIGO to Treasure Hunt
- Stop Drop, and Roll: TDE Photons and Their Misleading Spectra (Guest Post)
The Best Job in the World.
I was 30 years old standing in a small flower farm when I first saw the stars, despite getting a whole degree in astronomy. My time as the Astronomer in Residence for the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve was the greatest month of my life.
We crammed in a full 30 days of astronomy outreach: painted by starlight, talked existential dread by the lake, and held rooftop binocular sessions on a brand new museum. If you're
dying to watch a talk...
come hang out with me again and again in this recorded lecture from the Ketchum Community Library!
Learn how you are unfathomably ancient and loved by every star in the sky.
Can't Help It!
Whether it's astronomer in residence, journal club, invited talks, research updates, or high school conversations, I love crafting immersive presentations. Over the years my themes have ranged from comic books to restaurant posters. I take inspiration from board games, psychedelic lava lamps, Lisa Frank school supplies, and one of my favorite books: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
I'm a Pen Pal!
I absolutely love getting mail. Naturally, my favorite activity to participate in is Letters to a Pre-Scientist. For an entire year, I get loads of awesome drawings from a young pre-scientist, and they always get dibs on my sticker collection!
A close second place is Halloween-centric talks. For example, the recorded dirge I spoke at Astronomy on Tap State College for their Halloween Edition!
Books and Games:
My own interest in astronomy stemmed from wandering through gorgeous textbooks. It has been my immense privilege in recent years to edit several chapters of the textbook At Play in the Cosmos, by Adam Frank. (Which also comes with its own videogame!!!)
Why the Name?
My students in the past have laughingly referred to me as a "goth Ms. Frizzle," captivating the dark whimsy of the classroom.