LVAAS General Meeting
Sunday March 9, 3 p.m. at Trumbower 130, Muhlenberg College, Allentown PA
Speaker is in person
"From Black holes to Finding Habitable Planets: A Chronological Approach to Understanding Graduate Student Research"
Featuring Grace Sweetak
As a student in higher education, you encounter many opportunities to explore different types of research. In her talk, Grace will present a chronological viewpoint of her research experiences, from classifying exotic transient events to searching for habitable exoplanets. The two main research areas Grace will cover are her time working for Space Telescope Science Institute identifying Tidal Disruption Events, a process that describes an interaction between a star and a black hole, and her current position working for Penn State’s astronomical instrumentation group, designing a small explorer capable of identifying the habitability of rocky exoplanets. She hopes to provide context to answer questions concerning black holes, exoplanets, and the engineering behind astronomy, all while providing a framework to understand how a student goes from an interest in astronomy to creating a career and education surrounding their passion.
Grace Sweetak is a 2nd year PhD student in physics at Lehigh University. Growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Grace found her passion for science from her father, a career engineer. Her passion developed through her undergraduate education at Rollins College, where she received a degree in physics and minor in mathematics, all while competing as a division two student athlete in lacrosse. She had the opportunity to present her undergraduate research at the American Astronomical Society conference in January 2023, which led her to an internship at Space Telescope Science Institute, the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and mission operations for the James Webb Space Telescope. Currently, Grace is conducting her dissertation research with a collaboration at Penn State, working with Dr. Randall McEntaffer and his astronomical instrumentation team designing a new type of diffraction grating capable of stellar characterization of rocky exoplanets.
Prospective new members who wish to attend the meeting should email membership@lvaas.org.
