NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars Program
Upon joining the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration in March 2020, I convened a monthly series of webinars linking diverse organizations such as the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS), American Physical Society (APS) and National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) with EHT. This N-SANE Alliance culminated in outreach initiatives, including the establishment of a feeder program between NSBP and EHT.
Founded in July 2020 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), the NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars program supports summer internships in EHT-related black hole physics for students traditionally underrepresented in astronomy. The NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars continued in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and is in the midst of a 2024 search.
The program has already resulted in a 2021 master’s thesis from Fisk University, a 2022 publication in the high-impact MNRAS journal, a 2023 publication with two Scholars as coauthors, and recent graduate program offers from Princeton and Yale (to 2023 Scholar Kaitlyn Shavelle, Columbia ’24). Profiles of all current and past Scholars can be found below:
Katelyn Shavelle – Harvard/SAO Presentation: Detecting the Sgr A* Photon Ring Using Polarization in Simulated ngEHT Data (Mentor: Daniel Palumbo)
Dashon Jones – Harvard/SAO Presentation: Black Hole Time Delays and Higher Order Images (Starting 28:44) (Mentors: Prashant Kocherlakota and Paul Tiede)
Nitya Nigam – SCEECS Meeting NYC – Mar 2024
Publication: Anantua et al. (2023) (including Nigam and Durodola)
Nitya Nigam – Harvard/SAO Presentation: ngEHT Polarization Calibration (Mentor: Lindy Blackburn)
Carissma McGee – Harvard/SAO Presentation: Exploring the Measurability of Black Hole Shadows Using Space VLBI (Mentor: Dom Pesce)
Emmanuel Durodola – Harvard/SAO Presentation: Constraining the Spin of SMBHs using Structures in EHT Images (Mentor: Koushik Chatterjee)
Brandon Curd – Super-Eddington GRMHD Simulation Results on the Prospect of EHT Detection (Mentors: Razieh Emami and Richard Anantua)
Curd 2022 Harvard PhD Thesis (Ch. 5 on EHT/ngEHT TDE detectability)
Mar 2021 MIT Presentation: NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars – Cultivating the Next Generation of EHT Scholars by Partnering Across Backgrounds
2021 Call for Applicants – NSBP Website
Elon Price – Fisk Master’s Thesis (Mentors: Christian Fromm and Richard Anantua)
Paul Tola – Harvard/SAO Presentation (Mentor: Alexander Raymond)
AAS 2020 Press Release: Program Opens New Research Pathways for Underrepresented Young Astrophysicists
Hunter College High School – Career Day 2023: Meet an Astrophysicist/Hunter Alum
Suncoast Community High School – Career Day 2021: Meet an Astrophysicist
STEM Club
Founded Mar 2019 at Harvard CfA, STEM Club unites Harvard PoC’s (Postdocs of Color) with each other and the Harvard community at large through a monthly networking workshop+dinner. Presenters from all backgrounds are welcome to lead workshops on issues relating to any combination of STEM, underrepresented minorities in America, academia and industry.
List of STEM Club Workshops 2020
List of STEM Club Workshops 2019
American Astronomical Society Diversity and Inclusion Task Force 2018
I served on the Data Collection and Metrics for Success Working Group, contributing to the:
2018 AAS Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion in Astronomy Graduate Education – Final Report
Tutoring
CollegePrep 2017
I partnered with the educational organization CollegePrep to provide accessible online materials such as this SAT Math Tutorial.
Physics Partnerships through Prep
In 2014, I launched a series of webinars in which members of the Harvard and Stanford Physics Departments connected with high school and college alumni of the low-income/minority leadership development program Prep for Prep:
Physics Partnerships through Prep – Guest John Johnson