Megan Newsome, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Astrophysics from UC Santa Barbara | B.S. in Astrophysics from University of Florida
NSF Graduate Research Fellow 2020-2025 | LSSTC Data Science Fellow 2022-2024
I am a recent PhD graduate of UC Santa Barbara in Astrophysics. My work with Las Cumbres Observatory includes a research focus on tidal disruption events (when black holes unravel a star!) and regular contributions to the Global Supernova Project. I've also worked previously on galaxies, both with observations (measuring reionization rates of galaxy groups) and simulations (relating mergers to AGN rates). I obtained my B.S. with honors in Astrophysics from the University of Florida.
I spend my free time advocating for voting rights, running, and reading books. I am the founder of STEMocracy, a research and digital media project about civic engagement (and the lack thereof) among STEM students and academics.
Latest Presentations
I most recently gave a talk at the conference "Tidal Disruption Events in Crete" and an invited seminar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. Between an audience of my highly-niche colleagues and an audience of mostly students, both were full of excellent questions that propelled my research forward, and I sincerely thank the organizers of each for the opportunities!
For a review of all of my past major speaking engagements, check out the Talks and Presentations tab.