Catherine Espaillat
@DrCEspaillat
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Astrophysicist studying how stars and planets form, Prof. at Boston U, Founding Director of @lumamentoring #LatinaInSTEM 🇩🇴🇺🇸 she/her
Boston, MA
Joined December 2011
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So excited to share the results from my first observation with JWST! I waited 10 years to use JWST to follow up on some neon observations from Spitzer. Can't wait to see what else we learn about protoplanetary disks with JWST!
15 years ago, Spitzer saw unusual readings of neon III in a still-developing “solar system.” Webb just discovered the abnormal neon III has all but disappeared. Scientists believe clues to our own solar system’s past may lie in these flashing neon signs:
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Thrilled to share I'm now a full Professor in astronomy! Being the first US-born Latina to attain this is deeply meaningful to me. Grateful for the support along the way. Excited to pay it forward. Pa'lante!
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Happy to announce my promotion to Associate Prof. of Astronomy with tenure. Grateful for supportive mentors, colleagues, and collaborators. I am BU's first tenured
#LatinaInSTEM
and one of a handful of tenured Latina Astro profs in the US. Pa'lante!
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Astronomers: Please RT/like and help spread the word.
Inviting Black/Indigenous/Latinx women that are Astro grad students, postdocs, research scientists, or faculty to join the League of Underrepresented Minoritized Astronomers (LUMA).
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Young stars grow by accumulating material from their protoplanetary disks. In our
@Nature
paper we look at the footprint left on the stellar surface where the magnetic field lines funnel material from the disk onto the star. (Image: computer simulation by Marina Romanova) 1/
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Pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was to attend a virtual celebration of faculty promotions! It was great to connect with colleagues to celebrate good news during these times. And I had forgotten about my this picture taken during my first month as an assistant professor!
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Happy
#NationalLatinaDay
!
I'm especially celebrating these amazing Latina astronomers:
@laarcy7
@cosmic_silvi
@GianniG97
@francy_pants
@ohdearz
@dr_gabrielelele
@r_a_martinez14
@eblur27
@jazztronomy
@AstronoMouse_
@SaidaMCaballero
@romy_rodz
@malmolina_14
Please tag more!
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Congratulations to Dr. Connor Robinson!
@astroconnor
is my first PhD student and he just successfully defended his thesis on "Accretion Variability in Young Low-Mass Stellar Systems." Next, Connor will be heading to Amherst on a fellowship. We will miss him at
@AstronomyatBU
!
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There are at least 4 tenured Latina Astro profs in the US. I am 1 of only 2 born and raised in the US. The first was the amazing
@kellecruz
- an international leader in the field of brown dwarfs and founder of
@astrobetter
, which virtually every astronomer has used.
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I am the proud daughter of two immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Immigrants have been under attack especially lately and there's been a lot said about how much immigrants contribute to the US. Here's another one - the children of immigrants also make this country great.
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That was my last academic environment where Latinx weren't the minority. High school was half POC, then I went to PWI (Columbia, Michigan, Harvard). To be 1st is bittersweet. Sad to be 1st (or even 2nd) in 2020, hopeful for change, determined to push the movement forward.
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Very happy to share the first paper from the ODYSSEUS collaboration! It also happens to be my 100th paper!
Here we present first results from our analysis of the unprecedented UV dataset of young stars taken by the
@NASAHubble
ULLYSES program.
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Congratulations to Sagan Fellow Diana Powell (
@DianaPowell8
)!!!!!!!! Diana will be working on connecting protoplanetary disks and planetary atmospheres. She was one of my first undergrad advisees and it's been so wonderful to see her journey. I'm so incredibly proud!!!
How did we get here?
How does the universe work?
Are we alone?
These are the questions that the 24 new Fellows of the
@NASA
Hubble Fellowship Program seek to answer. Their work will help shape the future of astrophysics:
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Very happy one of my proposals was selected and that a few more protoplanetary disks will get their chance to be observed by the amazing
#JWST
!
The
#JWST
Cycle 1 General Observer Program selections have been made. Thanks to all involved who helped us prepare for the first year of JWST science. Get the details:
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In elementary school in Queens many of my classmates were the children of immigrants and most were Black/Latinx with a couple of Italian/Irish. In this classroom *two* future WOC profs with immigrant parents flourished - myself and the brilliant
@povertyscholar
.
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So happy and proud to congratulate Caeley Pittman (
@caelwave
) on being awarded the
@NSFGRFP
!!!
Caeley is a
@AstronomyatBU
grad student in my research group. She will be investigating how young stars grow though the accretion of material from their protoplanetary disks.
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Great article on a triple star system with a complex warped disk structure. Very happy to be part of this team led by
@astrokraus
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I will never be able to talk about baby stars without this in my head now!
Baby star doo doo doo doo doo doo, Baby star doo doo doo doo doo doo...
Open access link to our
@Nature
paper on baby stars here:
🎶Baby star️ ⭐️, doo doo doo doo doo doo, Baby star️ ⭐️, doo doo doo doo doo doo🎶
New research by
@DrCEspaillat
provides new clues as to what forces were at play when our sun was in its infancy & reveals new information about how young stars grow.
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I'm so incredibly touched by these kinds words from
@povertyscholar
who supported and inspired me throughout elementary school. The thread is a story of two young girls lifting each other up. Worth a read for the hilarious GIFs alone!
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I was so happy to talk about JWST's amazing new images on WBUR's "On Point" this morning. Can't wait for my data to be taken in a few months! Here's the link if you want to hear more about what astronomers will be doing with JWST:
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LUMA is a virtual peer mentoring community for URM women in Astro. LUMA just turned 5 yrs old and we are celebrating by trying to recruit our largest cohort yet!
For details and how to join see For questions DM
@DrCEspaillat
or lumalites
@gmail
.com
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Thank you to
@mcmsharksxx
for featuring me in this list for
#HispanicHeritageMonth
. Proud to be alongside so many amazing Latinx scientists! Check out this list!
10. Meet Associate Prof. of Astronomy Catherine Espaillat
@DrCEspaillat
! She is BU's first tenured
#LatinaInSTEM
and one of a handful of tenured Latina Astro profs in the US. Pa'lante!
#HispanicHeritageMonth
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Congratulations to Dr. Sierra Grant on her successful thesis defense! It was an honor to be
@Sierra_Grant
's Ph.D advisor and working with students like her is one of the best parts of my job! She'll be starting a postdoc at the Max Plank Institute. Prost!!!
Introducing Dr. Sierra Grant!!
I am immensely grateful for all the support that I’ve had in getting to this point: my family, my advisor, my group, my committee,
@KerrinHensley
, and
@PatrickTamburo
. I am beyond words. Thank you.
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Thank you
@jazztronomy
and
@moveboldly
for hosting a fantastic workshop for LUMA on imposter syndrome as a consequence of burnout culture! I highly recommend this workshop, especially for minoritized groups in STEM. Support this Latina owned business!
#HispanicHeritageMonth
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New paper out on accretion in T Tauri stars from the ODYSSEUS collaboration led by
@caelwave
Congratulations!!
My first first-author paper was just accepted for publication in AJ! Check it out on arXiv to read about the high accretion rates of nine Orion OB1b T Tauri stars observed with HST and the VLT - and keep an eye out for more ODYSSEUS papers coming soon!
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Super happy and proud of my PhD student
@Sierra_Grant
! Congratulations!!!
I am delighted to announce that starting in the fall, I will be a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck's group. I am beyond excited for this opportunity and can't wait for the science to come! Prost!!
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I have a protoplanetary disk joke, but it probably has too many gaps.
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Thanks to
@easmbr
for creating
@DominicansSTEM
and kicking off the all Latinx in STEM roll calls!
I have never had a
#DominicansinSTEM
mentor. We are 3 in Astro and I am the most senior. I am so grateful for my Latinx Astro mentors and community!
Roll call for ALL Dominicans in STEM. Let’s connect!! Y mi gente donde tan’? 🤩🇩🇴🇩🇴
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I know we have some Boricuas in Astro! Represent!
Now it’s our turn! ROLL CALL for the Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 in STEM! Donde están los Boricuas? 😎🙌🏝
#PuertoRicansInSTEM
@PRicansInSTEM
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Check out this paper by Álvaro Ribas (
@AstroRibas
)!
Modeling of Taurus disk SEDs finds high viscosities, seemingly at odds with reports of low disk turbulence and; higher disk masses than those derived with mm fluxes.
Fig: data orange, models blue.
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I did not know much English when I started Kindergarten (I came from a Spanish-only speaking home) and I had similar experiences. This toxic behavior can lead to internalized shame. Children are precious and should always be treated with loving kindness.
On my first day in first grade, I didn’t know any English (I had just immigrated from Taiwan). When I was introduced to my white teacher, I clearly recall her repeating her words and raising her voice each time until she was yelling.
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Proud to see my grad student John Wendeborn's 1st first-author paper published in ApJ!
We looked at a class of young stars called "FU Orionis objects" and report the first detection of variability at 3 millimeters from the FU Orionis object V1735 Cyg.
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So this is random. I just came across this video and now realize I walked past Ron Howard on a hike last week. I remember passing them because many people there didn’t have masks on and weren't physically distancing, but these two were. Counting this as a pandemic hike highlight!
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Finally saw the comet last night after multiple nights of trying. Couldn't see it without binoculars and even then it was hard to make out the tail with the city lights. Keep posting those beautiful comet pictures!
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Proud to co-PI the ODYSSEUS team alongside
@GregHerczeg
We may be the largest team ever assembled within the young star community (and we're open to adding new team members, DM us if interested). Looking forward to some excellent science results!
Thrilled that
@NASAHubble
approved ODYSSEUS, providing archival funds to US Co-Is to analyze UV spectra of accreting young stars from
#ULLYSES
DDT Legacy Program! Science goals: accretion/ejection processes and UV radiation environment for disk chemistry.
@cfmanara
@DrCEspaillat
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The ultraviolet and optical light curves show a time-lag. This indicates that the hotspot has a part that is even hotter (and denser) than the rest of the hotspot. For more details follow this
#OpenAccess
link to the
@Nature
article: 3/
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Please RT to astronomy, physics, and planetary science.
Very exciting to see LUMA growing under the brilliant leadership of
@astroarianna
!!!
astronomers, physicists, planetary scientists please boost!!
LUMA is recruiting self-identified Black/Indigenous/Latinx women that are grad students, postdocs, research scientists, or faculty in physics, astronomy, or planetary sciences.
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Happy JWST Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.
The new
#JWST
Cycle 1 General Observer proposal deadline will be November 24, 2020 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. For more information about the science timeline, see .
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More details on the team and our goals can be found on our website:
Co-authors include
@GregHerczeg
@caelwave
@astroconnor
@cfmanara
@r_d_alexander
@deltaskooti
@StefanoFacchi14
@JohnWendeborn
@jpw_hawaii
Please tag others I may have missed.
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Thanking some Astro Doctoras this
#HispanicHertageMonth
“Thank 10-ish women scientists & keep it going!”
@francy_pants
@ohdearz
@eblur27
@SaidaMCaballero
@dr_gabrielelele
@jazztronomy
@kellecruz
@SofiaMoschou
@allisonyyyyy
@astrojennb
@jessiedotson
@jgreaves6
@ralunney
@DisabledStem
@CaroleHom
@sumnerd
@ESakaiHernandez
@Sydney_O_Salley
@ChristyGberger
@francy_pants
@jessicamizzi
@ml_dillon
@Tessa_M_Hill
@methanoJen
@Renetta_Tull
@HendrattaAli
@MagaliBillen
@correlargo
@BerondaM
@DSDancers
@priyology
@Carina_Fish
@RogersLabUCD
@smburgessucd
@SapCaps
@origamicrab
@Juliano_Lab
@KristinAquilino
@LatinaNeuroNerd
@an_igwe
@PaleoMayowa
@LatorreLab
@policyandpups
@hershroom
@DeathCab4Callie
@Ava_Nicole23
@nolan_syreeta
This is my favorite kind of chain mail. “Thank 10-ish women scientists & keep it going!”
@Ilsastellar
@astrocaits
@DrCEspaillat
@NienkeMarel
@reneehlozek
@vbaldassare
@cwalshastrochem
@nadiamdrake
@astronitya
@PlanetDr
and so many more
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The footprint is called a hotspot since the material is very hot when it slams onto the star. We mapped a hotspot on the star GM Aur using multiwavelength observations taken from space (
@NASAHubble
,
@NASASwift
,
@NASA_TESS
) and the ground (
@LCO_Global
,
@cerrotololo
SMARTS). 2/
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This is mesmerizing! I could watch this on a loop all day.
Video by winterover Geoff Chen of SPT observing this week! The
#southernlight
#Aurora
are pretty amazing, especially the flare up at the end! Also fun to watch the
#MilkyWay
move across the sky during the movie!
#southpole
#Antarctica
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I am so honored to be seen as a role model by the next generation of scientists and thankful I get to work with incredible students
For
#IWD2021
I'm feeling extra grateful for the female mentors in my life. From the amazing Nuria Calvet in undergrad, to the inspiring
@DrCEspaillat
in grad school, and next by the pioneering Ewine van Dishoeck. I am incomparably lucky to have these women as role models!
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Very happy to see that BU is joining the fight against ICE and supporting our international students against these hateful policies.
BU will support two lawsuits and congressional action to fight new federal immigration guidance requiring international students with F-1 visas to leave the US, or transfer if their university is offering only remote instruction in the fall.
Details ⬇️
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Launch delayed another 7 mo. to Halloween 2021. My PhD thesis was based on Spitzer data and I'm so looking forward to seeing what the next infrared space telescope shows us about planet formation! In the meantime, I will think of a JWST costume. I'm thinking lots of gold.
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@PlanetTreky
@GianniG97
@JunellieG
@kortizceballos
@ProfAbelMendez
@SaidaMCaballero
@francy_pants
@PR_Planeteers
I know I'm missing many...
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This list brings me so much joy! Yesterday I knew about 5 Dominicans in STEM. Today I know there are at least 30. Check out all the excellence from
#DominicansinSTEM
on this list!
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Looking forward to giving this public lecture at 8pm Eastern tonight. Log on if you want to learn more about how planets form!
We will be having our final public lecture for the semester. Please join us tonight to learn more about Baby planets and their nurseries with the amazing
@DrCEspaillat
Watch on YouTube at 8pm ET tonight.
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Bravery, power, and brilliance on display here from
@JedidahIslerPhD
“Their arguments were neither good, accurate or even creative; they reflect the banality of white supremacy embedded in the blatant lie of meritocracy.”
As the 1st BW to graduate from Yale astro w a PhD in astrophysics, I was asked to comment on the racist dept emails sent by senior faculty in this
@buzzfeednews
story. TBH, I wasn't planning to. Not surprising and not worth my time.
#BlackintheIvory
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Check out this new paper by
@Sierra_Grant
! An ALMA survey of some of the brightest protoplanetary disks in L1641 plus a Class I with interesting large-scale structure that managed to sneak into our sample.
My latest paper is now on the arXiv (and accepted to ApJ!): An ALMA Survey of Protoplanetary Disks in Lynds 1641! We surveyed 101 of the infrared-brightest disks in this young, populous region.
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I am beyond excited to hear this news!!! Huge congratulations to
@povertyscholar
on her tenure!!! I know where she started from and now we’re here. Honored and grateful to have walked part of the path together through elementary school. We made it!!!
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On a more personal note, this paper stems from the work of my friend and colleague Paola D'Alessio, who developed the DIAD models and passed away in 2013. I hope using the ANN with DIAD leads to many more papers that further continue her legacy.
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Congratulations to
@MeravOpher
on this interesting result! Also, it's the first time a simulation has ever made me crave a coffee.
🥐 Do we live in a bubble shaped like a deflated croissant?
Scientists have developed a new puffy model for the shape of the Sun’s heliosphere, or the magnetic bubble that surrounds our solar system:
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This morning the title was "A Problem for College in the Fall: Reluctant Professors." Now it's "Colleges Face Rising Revolt by Professors." The problem is coronavirus. Wanting to avoid getting sick and risking death is not a rising revolt.
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Thank you everyone for your RTs and likes!
We've reached our goal and have had a 40% increase in LUMA members this week! And applications are still coming in.
I'm very excited to work with these marvelous women! Thanks again for helping us find each other and connect!
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I am on a Twitter list called BU > BC. 😂🤣 Honored to be considered as a positive factor in this school rivalry. Can I list this in my faculty annual report?
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“That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." - Carl Sagan.
We're all in this together.
Earth as seen from Mars by Curiosity Rover.
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@cosmojellyfish
Awe! I'm just following your lead! Love the suggested name change. Needs a U though - League of Ultra-Marvelous Astronomers 😀
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Amazing X-ray image of the entire sky from the
#eRosita
space telescope. Congratulations to the
@eROSITA_SRG
team!
Colour-coded image of the
#eROSITA
first all-sky survey conducted over a period of six months (red: 0.3-0.6 keV, green: 0.6-1 keV, blue: 1-2.3 keV).
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Yep. Always. Katharine Esplat is my favorite. May use it as my alias.
Random thought, but who else has dealt with your name constantly being mispronounced or misspelled? A couple of my favorites are jolanda and joelda (and for the record, my name is pronounced joe-all-duh).
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This was a huge computational effort & I'm proud of Álvaro for finishing it!
We used an artificial neural network (ANN) to mimic the DIAD model. Each DIAD model takes a few hrs to run; we can get a model using the ANN in <1s. So now we can model large samples & with MCMC.
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@DianaPowell8
Congratulations Dr. Powell!!!! Amazing talk! And I’m so happy to have witnessed all your awesomeness from undergrad to now! 🎉🎈🍾🎊
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Thank you to
@PhysicsUoL
for the invitation to give a talk about these fascinating young stars! I enjoyed meeting with you all!
Excellent
@PhysicsUoL
seminar this afternoon from
@DrCEspaillat
- fascinating new results on accretion and variability in young stars, highlighting the power of Hubble UV observations in this field. And lots more exciting science to come with ODYSSEUS:
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Simply amazing! Treat yourself to some serenity and awe today: click on the youtube link and play the 4K video on a monitor. Phone screen doesn't do it justice.
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@MGtoMD
@easmbr
Thank you for putting this list together!!! It is amazing. Can you please add
@MarlenZGonzalez
?
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@ArielOrtizBobea
@rogerfigPhD
@MarlenZGonzalez
@povertyscholar
I have never met a PhD with Dominican roots before and today I meet THREE!!! I am beyond excited! And you're all in one place too. Makes it easy for me - after this pandemic I'm coming down to meet you all and for some mangú!
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Tagging some of the team (I'm missing many, feel free to tag others):
@r_d_alexander
@SimoAntoniucci
@deltaskooti
@kamatahvel
@cfmanara
@astroannamio
@astroconnor
@onlygaitee
@StefanoFacchi14
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@DianaPowell8
This means so much to me. Following all of your successes has been such a pleasure. From undergrad at Harvard, grad school at UCSC, NSF fellowship, Ford fellowship, papers, conference talks. Can't wait to see what's next! Go get it!
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@ArielOrtizBobea
Keeping you, your grandmother, and your family in my thoughts today. Thank you for sharing and reminding us that human suffering and death is the result of this political incompetence.
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This is the 3rd FU Orionis object with variability in the mm (1st 2 at 1.3 mm). FU Orionis objects have large changes in their brightness at optical/near-infrared wavelengths likely due to massive accretion events. This mm variability is new and may also be linked to accretion.
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@cosmojellyfish
@kellecruz
@astrobetter
@ximenaccid1
Nice to "meet" you
@ximenaccid1
Thanks for the introduction
@cosmojellyfish
!
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Congratulations
@astroarianna
!!! Such a well deserved award! So very proud of you!!
Big life update!!!!!
Ya girl is going to be a
@NASAHubble
Postdoctoral Fellow at
@UTAstronomy
!!! This is something I dreamed of since I learned it existed, and frankly I'm still in shock. This one's for all my
#firstgen
and
#BlackinSTEM
people -- we out here doing big things!!
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Any Colombians in Astro out there? Sign up!
Saw this great idea from a fellow Latina in STEM: ROLL CALL for Colombians 🇨🇴 in STEM! Dónde está mi gente? Let’s connect!
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Si se puede!!! Home is here! We must remain vigilant and protect the rights of immigrants in the US. From Justice Sonia Sotomayor: that this is not about the law, that this is about our choice to destroy lives
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has upheld DACA — handing a dramatic victory to immigration advocates and allowing the program that has permitted about 650,000 "Dreamers" to stay and work in the U.S. legally to continue.
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@PlavchanPeter
@alexwitze
That was a great moment of that conference. We didn't tell anyone else though!
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Victoria's Secret model and fellow
#ColumbiaUniversity
alum
@CameronCRussell
discusses privilege and image -
http://t.co/xYPAR74c
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