Profile

I love all things space exploration, to be adventurous, travel, and try new things. I have been trying to learn surfing and skiing. However, both involve me falling a lot. One of “new things” I tried while I was in my first year at university was Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is a form of combat martial arts that is centered on ground-based fighting, grappling, and joint submissions. Several years later, I am still training (but not during lockdown), and loving every minute (when I can get it) of it. When I’m not science-ing, at Jiu-Jitsu, or adventuring, I love to watch movies with friends and read fiction novels.

My work focuses on developing a model to understand some of the basic processes that occur in planetary atmospheres. I’m designing my model to be applicable to a variety of planets both in our Solar System but also to rocky exoplanets, planets that orbit other stars.

The main process of planetary atmospheres I model is convection. Convection is when a fluid, like air, moves around to different areas due to density differences. The easiest way to think of convection is by thinking of a pot of boiling water. When the water at the bottom becomes hot, it becomes lighter than the water above it and thus it rises to the surface. These are the bubbles of water we see from the bottom that shoot up to the surface. On the other hand, cold water at the top of the pot is heavier than the hot bubbles coming up and it sinks down to the bottom of the pot. I apply this concept to planetary atmospheres and model the motion of “air” within the atmosphere to be able to determine whether these planets could have atmospheres that are suitable for life as we know it.

I am not a morning person so I normally wake up around 9:30 am and spend at least an hour eating breakfast. I then try to start working between 10:30 – 11 AM. Working from home has been challenging, so I try to focus on completing tasks that are more active in the mornings, such as working on my code. Around 1 PM, I take a walk and get some lunch to refresh my mind for the rest of my day. My afternoons usually contain at least one meeting with my research group where we dedicate time to learn from each other. I try to spend a couple hours afterwards reading up and learning about all the research and science other people are doing about planets. This takes me to the end of my work day.

I first discovered space exploration on a family holiday to NASA Johnson Space Center. This trip sparked my curiosity about space exploration and all the various NASA and ESA missions that study Earth, our Solar System, and what is beyond our Solar System. When I spend time learning more about these missions, and even working on some of these missions I get overly excited. To me, I’m still the little girl at Johnson Space Center looking at a model of the Curiosity Rover for the first time.

I want to share my excitement and passion for space exploration with everyone. I would like to use the prize money to travel (maybe in the future) to various schools and share my passion for space exploration and talk about various NASA missions that have shaped our understanding of the Universe and have also made me into the scientist I am today.