Tiffany Liou, 2023 Space Telescope Science Institute Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of California-San Diego

My name is Tiffany, a rising fourth year at UC San Diego, and I am beyond excited to be a Space Telescope Institute intern this summer. Over the past two years, I have been exploring different research interests at UCSD and Carnegie Observatories. I have previously reduced spectra from the IRTF Legacy Archives and I am currently trying to simulate dark matter subhalos in stellar streams.

Alongside being a resident star girl, I am the current president of SPS at UC San Diego. Our chapter strives to create a supportive physics community both inside and outside of UCSD. Most of the time, you can probably find me in the SPS room feasting on some kind of caffeine while questioning why my simulations make my computer sound like an airport.

Outside of academics, I enjoy adding clothes to my online shopping cart (never purchasing them though), watching movies, and learning new songs on the guitar. You can probably also catch me crouched on the ground to take pictures of flowers.

Once again, I am super stoked to be an SPS Intern at STScI and I cannot wait to learn more about the cosmos!

Internship

Host: Space Telescope Science Institute

Project

Abstract

In recent years, deep field surveys from the Hubble Space Telescope and MUSE on the Very Large Telescope have shed light on early faint galaxies. The second data release from MUSE HUDF (Hubble Ultra Deep Field) Survey, has a 1 arcmin diameter field of view and a depth of 141 hours, giving it higher spatial and redshift resolutions. The high sensitivity of MUSE allowed for the detection of 1308 Ly-α emitter galaxies (LAEs) (EW(Ly-α) > 20 Å) within redshifts 2.8

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Settling in and Finding Balance

After a few months of anticipating the start of the internship, we are all finally here in DC! This week has been a lot of juggling around with the internship, making new friends, and doing school. The joys of being on the quarter system meant my classes do not end until mid-June. Throughout this week, I have been finding the best ways to balance out my work-life schedule. Honestly, this mainly involved cafe-hopping and indulging in my coffee obsession for motivation. On a sidenote, some of us have discovered the wonders that is For Five Coffee Roasters. I would 10/10 recommend their iced lavender matcha latte! But anyways, back to the main agenda:

On Monday, I spent the morning at Tatte romantizing my quantum mechanics homework with a side of a pistachio latte. I didn’t realize how quick DC weather can change, as it went from sunny, to windy, to rainy, and back to sunny all within two hours. After hours of hard work, I was finally able to meet the other interns for the first time for dinner at Tonic. It was such a fun time at dinner, and we even got to sing happy birthday to Hannah! Then, after dinner, we met up to play card games, which was perfect to get to know each other and everyone’s fun personalities.

On Tuesday, the interns and I all woke up bright and early to attend orientation at the American Center of Physics. Arriving at ACP and getting to meet Brad, Kayla, and Mikayla was such a fun experience, and I got to learn all about the purposes and goals of the program. The best part of orientation, though, was the spaghetti tower competition. My team were not confident in winning at all due to our very smooshed marshmallows. To our suprise, we got first place (and a coupon to Captain Cookies)!

I got the chance to meet with my mentor Dr. Nimisha Kumari from STScI for the first time on Wednesday. We discussed about our weekly project goals and I cannot wait to get started. This project is the perfect avenue to challenge myself on observational data and learn about reading spectra. I truly appreciate getting this opporunity to expand my scope of research. Throughout the rest of the week, I spent a lot of time both catching up on school work and indulging myself in research papers assigned by Dr. Kumari. There was certainly a learning curve when reading these papers, but I am prepared to ask a lot of questions!

All the work aside, I also spent some good times with the interns. Some nights, we gather to hang out and play board games. This week I have learned how to play the colored tile game, Azul. I also went to Union Market with MJ, Emily, Julia, and Eva! There were so many good food options that it was difficult to choose which food stand to buy from. After getting our food, we sat outside and just enjoyed the atmosphere. There was a moment when the sun peeked through the clouds just perfectly, and that was the best ending to the afternoon.

The first week of this internship has been an absolute blast, and I cannot wait for what is next to come. See you next week!

Caffeine, Serotonin, and Spontaneity

Time is going by so fast, and I can’t believe we are already done with two weeks of the program. But, if I were to describe this week in three words, it would be: spontaneous, studious, and full-of-caffeine.

This week, I really strived to understand the papers that my mentor had assigned me about the MUSE HUDF data release. For each paper, I focused on what each figure describes and the significance of the results. I curated all this information into a presentation and discussed it with Dr. Kumari during our meeting on Wednesday. Having this meeting helped me understand the big picture of spectral line properties and what our project will focus on.

I spent half my days this week doing internship and school work while sipping on some iced lattes at Tatte. There is just something about the ambience inside coffee shops that makes working so much more relaxing! On the rest of the days, I commuted with some other interns to ACP. On our way to the office, we would try our best to catch the rainbow pride train, or just snap pictures as it passed by. This Thursday was also the Wikipedia edit-a-thon! We had an absolutely stellar host (shoutout to MJ) and donuts. During this time, I got to learn all about Elmer Imes and his contributions to quantum physics as the second African-American to get a Phd.

I set a goal this week to get outside, be a little spontaneous, and have fun! Luckily, I missed most of the smoke when it was time to go out and explore. This Monday, I went to the National Mall for the first time with the other interns. Some interns were running around playing frisbee, while some of us sat on the grass with some relaxing music playing in the background. Seeing so much greenery always makes me so happy, and it was the perfect way to start the week. On Friday night, I went to a ballet show by the Washington Ballet at City Center DC with some other interns. We fawned over how beautiful the dances were and admired the versatility of dance styles. Saturday was by far one of my favorite days, as we had some brunch and went to the pride parade! So many memories and adventures were made this week, and I can’t wait to do even more next week!

See ya soon!

Relief and Exploration Time

Relieved is an understatement to how I feel right now. I finally finished my finals on Friday, which marked the end of my third year. This called for a post-final de-stress boba trip with some of the interns. This also means I get to fully immerse myself in the internship without worrying about school now!

There are so many things I want to explore now. After my meeting with my mentor on Thursday, I got my hands on some spectral data from the MUSE HUDF data release. Honestly, I have never tried to load FITS files into my computer before, but looking at the large memory size is a little terrifying. (I guess that is what the work laptop will be useful for.) That aside, I am excited to explore what the data has to offer, and perhaps try to replicate some plots from literature!

This week has also been a wild week full of stories and spontaneous adventures. On Thursday, the SPS Interns had a dinner event with the executive committee. It was a really valuable experience to talk with the committee members who have gone through similar undergrad experiences, and even experiences they had during their time in the SPS internship. One of the craziest stories came from Earl, the SPS historian. He told us about a scientist who was making measurements of radioactive atoms in a silver casing. TLDR this was the story of the Manhattan Project, and the project leader was Oppenheimer. Just hearing this completely blew my mind.

We also got the opportunity to attend a performance on Saturday from NOI, the National Orchestral Institute. Shoutout to Jack for this amazing experience! During the dinner before the performance, some interns and I got the chance to talk to two first violinists and learn about their absolutely impressive musical backgrounds. This definitely shined through during the performance. I must also mention the phenomenal piano soloist. He was completely immersed in the music and had so much passion while playing the keys. Man, this makes me miss playing in an orchestra.

Last but not least, I must brag about my step count for Sunday. I somehow walked 18,220 steps today during my little adventure to Georgetown Flea Market. The walk there was so relaxing and so much fun! Making sidequests to shops and cafes here and there probably contributed to at least half of the step count. Honestly, I feel like I can beat this step count next week. We shall see.

Until next week!

Tourist Mode: Activated

Welcome back to another blog, everyone! I must say that this week has been an absolute gem! (See paragraph 6 for details.) So much has happened, I don’t even know where to start.

Okay, let’s start with some cool science. Every week, I get more and more excited about my project with Dr. Kumari. This week, I focused on selecting some lyman alpha emitting galaxies from MUSE DR2 that we might be interested in. To do this, I plotted the spectra of around 300 galaxies and constrained the redshift range where Ly-α all the way to CIII 1909 lines were detected. (Side note: check out my meme below.) While sorting through the data, I realized just how many of these galaxies were previously undetected by Hubble and, most importantly, how sensitive the MUSE survey was. This data release targeted the Hubble Deep Field (HUDF), and it refined the redshifts of the objects with high confidence. Isn’t that amazing?

Speaking of data, surveys, and telescopes, never have I thought we would be talking to Nobel Laureate Dr. John Mather over some gyros and greek salad. It was such an inspiring experience to have the project scientist of COBE and JWST talk to us about his work and his career path. He is such an engaging speaker and his humor is absolutely hilarious. I hope we can see Dr. Mather again at the final presentations!

Another highlight of the week was Astronomy on the Mall on Saturday. Big thank you to Emily for organizing everything! Tabling the event and making people excited about physics and astronomy was such a stellar experience (pun very much intended). At some point, Devin and I started playing Hot Crossed Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb with the boomwhackers. I had to take a break from it though because I was hitting my head a bit too hard and taking the “boom whacking” a little too seriously. On another note, I had so much fun at the trivia table and asking people about the binary neutron star merger GW170817. I was a bit biased towards the question, just because I really like neutron stars :').

I suppose I should talk about my blog title now, just so it doesn’t remain clickbait. This week has been a lot of fun exploring DC as well! On Monday, Brynn, Clay, and I visited the botanical gardens with Joseph, a previous SPS intern who now works at NASA! It felt like a sous vide out there, but looking at all the pretty plants made being outdoors worth it. When we got back, the interns had a little Italian themed potluck, which was super cute!

On Wednesday night, some of the interns ventured out in the rain to go bowling. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I went to an arcade, or a bowling alley, so this brought back some memories. There was also an unexpected amount of Seventeen songs on the DDR machine?! We decided to challenge ourselves to the hard mode. In the case someone from Seventeen is reading this, I am sorry.

One of my favorite things on this trip so far was visiting the monuments at night on Friday. I have not yet visited any of the monuments until this trip, and getting to see them at night was absolutely beautiful and even more impactful. Another one of my main highlights this week was getting to see my friend Anna from UCSD! They are also doing an internship here in DC, which is amazing. I was so happy we got to grab dinner and hang out at the National Museum of Natural History. We spent a good amount of time looking at the rocks and minerals exhibit and fonding over how cool they looked. The vibes were immaculate this week and I loved every minute of it.

Till next time!

Do it for Baltimore!

Ahh, I can’t believe we are halfway through the program! I am now sitting once again at Tatte with a little iced americano and tiramisu cup to write about one of the most eventful weeks yet. To sum up this week in three words: AGNs, space, and trains.

I suppose everything I am doing is related to space, so perhaps I cheated a little in my three descriptors. Here’s something interesting though, and I think it is a sign. For almost every day this week, I have encountered something about AGNs, or active galactic nucleis.

It started out on Monday, when MJ and I studied at a cafe near Dupont Circle. I was sorting through some spectra from MUSE DR2 and there was this one spectrum that caught my attention. Not only was it so clean, it had a large lyman alpha absorption and other interesting emission lines. Upon some searching, it was an AGN! Later that night, a group of interns went to Astronomy on Tap. I was really excited to learn that Astronomy on Tap was also a thing here in DC because it is one of my favorite ways to learn about the cosmos. There were a total of three speakers who talked about the chaotic mechanisms of the Sun’s magnetic field, the quest for exoplanets, and the theoretical physics of AGNs and black holes. During the talk about AGNs, I was so surprised I was able to follow the equations about general relativity, and that I had absorbed a solid amount of information from my black holes and GR class.

Tuesday definitely defined my week. I left bright and early in the morning (7 am) on my journey to STScI in Baltimore! Man, I was so excited that I forgot I wanted to nap on the train ride there. I am glad I didn’t fall asleep though because the greenery outside was so beautiful. As I approached Baltimore, I just HAD to play one of my favorite songs “For Baltimore” by All Time Low. When else will I get such an appropriate chance to listen to it? When I arrived at STScI, after getting lost for 20 minutes on the Johns Hopkins campus, I was greeted by Dr. Kumari. She introduced me to some of her colleagues and her intern from the STScI SASP program. It was so amazing to meet everyone in person! Later in the day, I attend a galaxy journal club. The topic this week was... AGNs! At this point, this must be a sign that I should start studying AGNs.

Wednesday and Thursday were a little more chill. I definitely had to recover from the 4 hour total commute on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I learned that three laps around the AIP building is equivalent to one mile!

On Friday, Ruthie gave us a tour of the US Capitol and the place where science committee hearings happen. We even walked through an underground tunnel to get from one building to another. While walking through the capitol building, I can’t help but wonder how the architects came up with such a sophisticated design and how they even built such a beautiful structure. The rotunda was especially one of the most amazing sights I have seen in DC! Thanks Ruthie for giving us such a wonderful and insightful tour! Another thing on Friday, is that I tried Taco Bell for the first time! Bless Devin’s soul for letting me experience the wonders of a Mexican pizza. This was truly the American dream~

As if doing research on space wasn’t enough for a daily dosage of the cosmos, Jenna, Ruthie, MJ, and I visited the Air and Space Museum on Saturday! To be honest, half of the time I was trying to hold in my tears. There is just something about the background music in documentaries that make me want to sob. We saw really cool exhibits about the moon, the planets, and Apollo 11. One of the most exciting parts ,though, was discovering that there was an extra floor of the gift shop. I probably spent half my time enabling MJ to get more space socks. After walking around the museum, I decided to make a side quest to Chinatown so I could eat some noodles. After being away from home for so long, I was craving some beef noodle soup. The fact that it began pouring outside while I was eating just made the experience even better!

Week 5 was such an eventful week and I truly cannot believe that we are so far into this program. We are halfway there and we are still going strong!

Till next time ~

Step Count Overload

I swear I was just writing the Week 5 blog just yesterday. It has yet again been another week! Week 6 has been a crazy week and I cannot wait to write all about it. This time, I am not writing at a coffee shop and the scenery outside is changing at 110 miles per hour. Instead of summing up my week with three words, I will provide my most listened to song of the week: “Andromeda” by Weyes Blood.

Work this week has been a little challenging in terms of understanding code and finding more efficient ways of analysis. I am currently looking at data for 141 galaxies and making visualizations of their qualities through Python. The struggle for this is maintaining both accuracy and code efficiency. Simply put, I do not want to plot things for each galaxy by hand. One of the most important lessons I learned this week was to be skeptical and check the logic behind each plot I made. Does the mass to star-formation rate relationship match with expectations and previous literature? What are the differences between what others are studying versus what I am studying? Understanding these questions not only allowed me to improve my code, but also my knowledge on the project topic.

This week was full of celebrations! Happy Independence Day, America! Never have I felt more American than celebrating July 4th at a Nationals baseball game and on the National Mall. Monday was my first time at a baseball game since first grade and my first time trying Dippin Dots. I don’t understand a whole lot about baseball, but I loved the feeling of being at a baseball game. It was fascinating to see a full crowd sharing a collective team spirit. The team spirit was so strong that the wave lasted for five rounds around the stadium.

On Tuesday, the actual Independence Day, Ruthie, Devin, and I started our days with the Spiderverse movie. The film is so good and I just HAD to watch it in theaters again. The animation and soundtrack never fails to amaze me. After watching the movie, a lot of the interns walked to the Washington Monument to watch the firework show. I must say that there was a slight sacrifice in order for us to make it to the good spot we had. We left very early while the sun was still blazing hot. Jenna and I also walked to McDonalds to order some dinner in this insufferable heat. Let me just say that the sweat from walking in this heat was truly a humbling experience. Nonetheless, the fireworks were absolutely breathtaking and I can’t even fathom the amount of effort put in by the organizers.

After the July 4th celebrations, I was surprised that I was able to stay strong and continue the hustle the next day. On Wednesday, I woke up bright and early to commute to STScI. But after I came back to the dorms, I was #goners and slept for 10 hours.

The 10 hours was definitely an accident, as I overslept ~14 alarms (not including the snooze reminders). Having said this, Thursday was off to a chaotic start, but it got better as the day went on. Jenna hosted an APS workshop on communication. During the workshop, I realized that communicating clearly, or even just maintaining a fair conversation, is harder than it seems. Participating in the planned activities helped me to reflect more upon my own words and speak more thoughtfully. After the workshop, rain started POURING. That stereotype of Californians in an earthquake vs in the rain is totally true. I have too many videos of this fascinating weather.

After work, Ruthie, MJ, and I had such a fun time grabbing sushi off of a conveyor belt. In my opinion, that taiyaki ice cream was one of the best decisions I have made this week. The combination between hot and cold, crunchy and creamy, was out of this world. 10/10 would do again.

Where do I even start for Friday? On Friday, I hung out with my friends, Brigette, Miles, and Trevor in New York! We are all doing internships on the east coast, so we decided to plan a little trip to New York City. I was so excited to spend the weekend with them after an entire 6 weeks. This weekend, I think I have walked the amount I would walk in two weeks. My step count was an average of 30,000 steps per day. Some of these steps were taken in Time Square, others were through Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Chinatown.

When in New York, we must had to try out hot dogs on the street and the famous NY bagels. The funniest part was we tried to trick our bagel-fanatic friend back home that we couldn’t make time in our itinerary to try authentic NY bagels. And instead, we just went to Dunkin Donuts. Just to clarify, the bagel sandwich below is in fact not from Dunkin, but from a cute little shop near Central Park!

This was truly a weekend to remember, and I am so happy and thankful to have spent some quality time with my amazing friends. I miss them already :c

Till next time!

On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink

Hey Alexa, play “Super Shy” by NewJeans! The amount of times I have blasted this song in my eardrums during my evening walks is probably unhealthy. Week 7 flew by so fast, I’m not even sure if I even processed it happening.

Research has been very interesting this week! I have begun looking at the metal abundances of galaxies from MUSE DR2. It was also fun to read more papers and compare my work to those of works based on previous data releases. This week, I’ve also learned more on how to use LaTeX. I usually use Overleaf templates for school, but this time I had to use a local LaTeX application in order to efficiently access files on my computer. It was kind of a stressful process, to get the code to run for 141 galaxies. Please join me in hoping for the best for the memory space for my computer. Hopefully, everything will work out soon.

This week, I tried to do some self-care activities to recharge my mind. Some of that includes listening to rain sounds on repeat. I am crossing my fingers that listening to rain noises for 2 hours a day will not significantly affect my Spotify Wrapped.

On Monday, I found a nice little spot in GW to sit and journal. It was a good spot to look at squirrel chases and the big fluffy dogs walking by. The only con was the mosquitos that were thirsty for my blood.

The next day, Tuesday, a couple of interns and I took a little walk to the river and watched the sunset. There was also a family there who were trying to catch fish, and it was very exciting to watch their fishing poles bob up and down. I really enjoyed spending time sitting beside everyone and just staring out at the sun’s reflection in the water. That was definitely a good way to destress and end the day.

Wednesday was also really fun. In the early afternoon, a couple of interns got the opportunity to participate in a focus group for Physics Today. I’ve never volunteered to be in a focus group before, so this was a really fun experience! After work on Wednesday, Brynn, Ruthie, Colin, and I went to Georgetown to shop for Barbieheimer clothes. Pink is such a great color :') I love pink. Georgetown is such a dangerous place for my wallet because I just so happen to be part of the target demographic of the stores. I will be going back (but someone please stop me).

On Thursday, I got to learn many tips and tricks on photo composition from the workshop! I even got to try out what I learned using the mini sumo wrestler figure and Julia’s water bottle. Not going to lie, I think one can do some good film analysis on the 8 second short film I made with the sumo wrestler.

That night, we also had an intern potluck. The theme this week was “Hometown Glory,” so I made some Taiwanese scallion pancakes. It has been quite a few months since I last had it, so the potluck was a good excuse to eat it again. Everyone brought very delicious dishes and desserts. There were even dino nuggies!

On Friday, I hung out with my friend Anna at the National Museum of Asian Art. We got some really nice paper fans. Those will definitely carry us through the rest of this DC heat. We walked through the exhibits and got to see artifacts from India, China, Japan, and the Middle East. There was also a cool feature to scan a QR code to look at a virtual 3D print of an artifact not on display. It reminded me of my good friend back in California, so I was really happy!

The weekend was very chill and filled with Barbie. It was very nice to take a little chill break after such an eventful week. Thank you for reading, and I’ll catch you later!

Till next time ~

So Matcha (much) Matcha

Hi everyone! Welcome to my Minecraft YouTube Channel. Today, we are breaking into almost the end of the program. Just kidding, I don’t know how to play Minecraft. I am just quoting my friend Nicole. My song of the week is “Sunset” by Caroline Polachek.

I started almost every day of the work week with a matcha latte. Before heading into STScI, I stopped by a local cafe in Baltimore named Bird in Hand. Living in California and DC has made me semi-immune to 7-8 dollar lattes as a norm (milk-substitutions are not a win for the lactose intolerant). I was surprised that my matcha latte with oat milk was less than $5.50. Getting this latte energized me and got me ready for some research! This week, I worked on refining and analyzing the plots I have made. I learned quite a bit about the population of galaxies from the MUSE data and how it compared to conclusions from previous literature. I was also trying to identify the trends of these MUSE galaxies, or if there are any at all. Getting to synthesize information from previous literature helped a lot in this process!

This week has been pretty chill but interesting outside of work. Monday and Tuesday flew past very quickly from going into STScI. I was so ready to fall asleep right when I got back to the dorm. On Tuesday, a group of interns got together for a cute little movie night. Democracy won and we watched one of the most wholesome movies of the past decade (iykyk ;) ).

Wednesday was pretty busy, but I went to the farmer’s market after work and got a loaf of olive thyme sourdough! Sadly, I forgot to take pictures, but it goes phenomenally with some good soup.

Friday was definitely one of the highlights of my week. ‘Twas the day of Barbenheimer! Devin, my friend Anna, and I were absolute troopers and sat through 5 hours worth of movies. We started off our night with the Barbie movie and ended with Oppenheimer. No spoilers, but the Barbie movie was absolutely amazing and Greta Gerwig does such an amazing job at creating emotional films. (Peep the before and after pictures for Barbie).

Oppenheimer was also stunning! It is worth mentioning that Devin and I wore our work badges to represent physics. And Devin wore a physics tie too, so that was an iconic moment! The movie went on so late and we got back to the dorms at almost 3am. It was a miracle we woke up in time the next morning for brunch!

For brunch, Julia, Emily, Brynn, Gizem, Devin, and I went to Rakuya for a Japanese Style breakfast. I was so ecstatic to eat medium grain rice! I honestly would have cried if I was alone. Their teishoku set was incredible and I must have it again before leaving DC!

After brunch, I took some time to relax and pick up some hobbies again. By that, I mean binge watching Korean dramas. And I started to read again! I am currently reading The Disordered Cosmos by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. It was nice to finally have the opportunity to pick the book up again after awhile.

Week 8 has been a blast, and I’m so sad this program is almost over. I am definitely going to be savoring these last few weeks.

Till next time!

Winding Down on Week 9

Hey there! I can’t even process that it is already the end of Week 9. The time really just blew past (like that 80 mph wind on Saturday). Please stop me from making more weather jokes.

The song of the week is “Speed Drive” - by Charlie XCX.

Research this week has been quite busy. Luckily, I spent most of my work hours at a coffee shop, so inhaling coffee scents made me feel 10x better. I did a lot of cross-referencing different literature to fully understand the meanings of the plots I have made, and any implications my results can have. I also began making slides for the final presentation! It is honestly harder than I thought. Condensing 9 weeks of research into 8 minutes is quite challenging. Everything I’ve done was so fun, it was hard to curate a small number of results to share in the presentation.

Since it was the second to last week, I tried to savor the last few moments I have in DC. From watching sunsets to watching the moon’s reflection on the Potomac River, all these activities had me feeling sentimental.From Monday to Wednesday, I feel like I was getting in touch with the outdoors, the lightning, and the mosquitos. (They literally suck.) On Tuesday, Hannah, Ruthie, Jenna, Brynn, and I took a little stroll out to the Lincoln Memorial to watch the Marines Band performance. Unfortunately, it started raining and the lightning got a little too close to comfort. We went back to the dorms and had an impromptu Azul game night with Devin. Playing Azul really brought back memories from the first few weeks. This time, though, I was not stressing over my classes.

I also started to pick up reading! Note to self: do not ever read Crying in Hmart in public again. I got to enjoy a peaceful moment at Georgetown Waterfront. Reading in front of the water during golden hour felt like the epitome of romanticizing life, and I loved every second of it.

Thursday came around, and I kind of forgot what I did during the day time. I know for sure that I had a blast in the evening. Emily and MJ had written up a D&D-esque story game. We call it Lightspeed! That night, Hannah, Ruthie, Brynn, Eva, Emily, MJ, and I got together to continue part two of curing bloated cows. I will never forget Gavin’s (Hannah) shawarma marinating jellyfish hands. That was a core memory from this summer that I will for sure be carrying with me throughout my life.

I was very happy I woke up in time on Friday for the NIST Tour! Big shoutout to Gizem who organized this tour for the interns <3. During the tour we saw different types of lab equipment, cool metal 3D printers, and loads of cool things one can do with optics. During the middle of our tour, we got to see some cool things about forensic science and how fluid dynamics is related to it. At that moment, I felt really inspired to do fluid mechanics because of how beautiful it is. One thing that I really appreciated during the tour was that every single intern was geeking out about everything. It is too wholesome and I loved sharing this moment with everyone. I was also so excited about getting to see the standardized peanut butter.

Saturday was also super exciting! In the evening, a group of interns went to a piano bar. I didn’t know what to expect at first, but I ended up having such a blast! The feeling when the whole bar was singing along to Taylor Swift, Country Roads, and other classics, was just immaculate!

Last but not least, Sunday. Sunday was very fulfilling. In the morning, Emily, Ruthie, and I had brunch at a cute cafe in Georgetown. Then we went window shopping in the nearby stores! Thankfully, Reformation had very slow wifi. Otherwise, I would be in great trouble. In the evening, Ruthie, MJ, and I went on a little adventure to Union Market for dinner! We had matcha and sesame soft serve for dessert. It was made of oat milk too! What a win for the lactose intolerant!

After I got back, I Facetimed with my best friends from home, Annabelle and Joanna. I can’t wait to see them when I get back to California! So close but so far away~

Before I start getting even more sentimental about this program, I’m going to peace out. Stay tuned for next week’s blog!

Till next time ~

Goodbye DC!

Hi there! By the time you are reading this, I am probably breathing some crispy air in sunny San Diego. In honor of being back home, the song of the week is “California” from the 88rising artists!

These ten weeks have flown past faster than the blink of an eye. During this week, I definitely tried to make the most out of my time here. My motto this week was literally “work hard, play hard.”

During the first half of the week, I focused on making my presentation and tweaking my plots to be more clear. Tuesday was a very special day! Dr. Nimisha Kumari, my mentor, took another student intern, and graduate student of hers, and me out to lunch. We chatted for a long time while enjoying some pizza. Getting to know everyone and be in each other’s company outside of academics was truly a valuable experience!

Thursday came by really quickly. The interns all woke up bright and early to go practice our presentations. Not going to lie, doing the run throughs really made it hit that the program is coming to an end. After the mock presentations, the interns all went to Tonic (aka where it all started). If anyone asks me what I miss most about DC (besides AIP and SPS), it would be the tater tots at Tonic. They’re just deep fried to perfection.

Friday was presentation day! I loved seeing what everyone has been working on for these past weeks, and everyone’s presentations were phenomenal. I was also very happy while presenting my project. After watching the stream, I realized that I was smiling way more than I thought. It was truly an enjoyable experience! I’m also incredibly thankful for my parents and my best friends for waking up so early to watch the stream. <3

Thank you to Dr. Nimisha Kumari for being a supportive mentor and for guiding me through a part of astronomy that I wouldn’t have dared to touch. Thank you to Brad, Kayla, and Mikayla for this opportunity and all your support! This summer was unforgettable, and I hope to cross paths with everyone here once again.

See y’all soon!