A few of my projects are listed below, but please see my CV for more information.
Gender bias & publication times
Wanting a way to explore diversity within the astrophysics community, I started a research project looking at the correlation of time from submission to acceptance of astronomical papers for men versus women lead authors. I used data scraping techniques and a gender determining application program interface to determine the gender of around 4000 different first authors who published papers in 1998 and 2018. Using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test to decide if the two differing distributions for females and males come from the same parent distribution, we found that on average, in the years 1998 and 2018, there was a 2-week difference in elapsed time from submission to acceptance for male versus female first authored papers. We believe that although a 2-week difference may not be a substantial enough period to cause concern, it raises other issues within the community that must be addressed, such as the role nationality and intersectionality play in discrimination regarding academic literature
DEI Efforts
At Caltech, I am involved with organizations representing minorities in STEM, such as serving on the leadership board for Gender Minorities and Women in Physics, Math, and Astronomy (GWiPMA) and serving on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Outreach (DEIO) committee for the Physics, Math, and Astronomy (PMA) division. Additionally, I have shared my experiences at conferences like FUTURE Ignited, a one-day conference designed to support underrepresented young scientists and allies through providing insight into life as a graduate student and exploring what makes a successful graduate school application. I spoke to future graduate students about my academic journey and graduate school experience so far.
One of the greatest benefits to participing in DEIO focused organizations, and one of the reasons why I am still in physics today, is because these groups foster an inclusive community. They provide a place for others to reach out to mentors, find collaborators, and become a mentor themselves. Click on the buttons below to read more about these initiatives at Caltech and you can get involved (even as a non-Caltech student).
Outreach
Through Caltech's public outreach program, I regularly participate public astrophysics talks and panels.
Additionally, I was invited to be a guest speaker for a Caltech Associates event centered around the search for habitable worlds. My talk was titled "How to find an Ewok: Detection and characterization of bodies outside our solar system" to celebrate the intersection of science fiction and my research for Star Wars day (May 4th).