Hi! I'm Meg!

I am a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Insitute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (IA - FORTH; Heraklion, Crete, Greece) and a Research Scientist at the University of Connecticut (UConn). I got my undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 2019, where I was also a post-baccalaureate researcher for a year until 2020. I earned my MSc from UConn in 2022 and my PhD in 2025, during that time I was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Blonder Research Fellow. My PhD thesis was entitled "Timing is Everything: Single and Binary Quasars in Massive Time-Domain Surveys". You can see my CV here.

After defending my thesis, I took a short break from academia to try out industry as a Machine Learning Engineer. While I learned at lot about machine and deep learning methods, I was quite excited to return to my research on single and binary supermassive black holes. My continued astrophysical research interests are: massive time-domain surveys, SMBH-galaxy co-evolution, supermassive black hole binaries, and general AGN and quasar variability. I especially enjoy researching hypervariable targets: the weirder/more variable, the better! My general research interests revolve around creating cutting-edge, computationally in-expensive data analysis techniques and pipelines, from Fourier analysis to machine learning algorithms. I'm quite passionate about science communication, student mentorship, and open-source software development too.

Beyond research, my personal interests include stained glass art, astrophotography, and reading (I review books for publishers!). I'm also an ordained minister and love to officiate weddings! I would like to see all of the wonders of the world before 35 (2/7 done!) and visit 30 countries before 30 (18 down!). I'm really happy to be here, to share my story, and to uplift students in STEM, as was done for me. I'm committed to supporting under-represented and under-resourced students in the field of astronomy. This means creating resources, mentorship programs, and research and funding opportunities for said students while also addressing the systemic issues that they face both in academia and in society.