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Congratulations to Professor Jedidah Isler on her recent video feature on PBS News' Brief but Spectacular — a recurring segment dedicated to exploring the lives and minds of extraordinary people and the causes that drive them. During the clip, which aired along with the daily broadcast on Jan. 4, Prof. Isler discusses her lifelong love of astrophysics (and especially blazars) as well as her experiences as a black women pursuing a career in STEM. To check out the full broadcast, click here.
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Every other winter, the department sends a handful of motivated students to Cape Town, South Africa, where they spend ten weeks conducting independent research, doing youth outreach at local schools, and taking courses in astronomy. This includes one full week at the South African Astronomical Observatory, home to the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere, SALT. Pictured above are the 2019 student participants, enjoying a day off to go sightseeing along the Cape of Good Hope.
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Symmetry Magazine lists 10 seemingly normal words that mean something different in a scientific context.
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"I study supermassive, hyperactive black holes called blazars in order to understand how nature does particle acceleration. I use blazars–supermassive black holes at the centers of massive galaxies that “spin up” jets of particles moving at nearly the speed of light–as my laboratory. By obtaining observations across the electromagnetic spectrum from radio, optical, and all the way through to gamma-rays, I piece together how and why these black holes are able to create such efficient particle accelerators and, by extension, I understand the universe a tiny bit better.
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