Megan Newsome

Astrophysics at UC Santa Barbara  |  NSF Graduate Research Fellow  |  LSSTC Data Science Fellow

I am a PhD student at 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.

Recent Talk at "The Restless Nature of AGN"

In Napoli, Italy, I excitedly shared our results about a couple of exceptional tidal disruption events. It was such a joy to talk about our work on dust echoes, high-ionization coronal lines, and what these observations tell us about the environments around supermassive black holes! I also met some amazing scientists, which is always the most incredible part of conferences and workshops. That, and Napolitan pizza......

AAS Chambliss Award

My poster "AT2020mot: Probing the Sub-Parsec Scales of SMBHs" was awarded the Chambliss Award at the 240th American Astronomical Society meeting! I presented a tidal disruption event whose observations show signs of dust very near the central supermassive black hole. So near, in fact, that one wonders how that dust got there, and how can it survive so close without the black hole gobbling it up?

As excited as I was to share my own research, the best part was getting to meet so many new colleagues and learn about their amazing work. I truly can't wait to see them again. Get to know some of them here!

Astronomy on Tap

I recently co-hosted Astronomy on Tap: Santa Barbara! Which means bigger news: AOT IS BACK to Santa Barbara!!! It's been a long couple years, but now we have an outdoor venue at M Special Downtown with an amazing AV setup and a wonderfully casual atmosphere for all space enthusiasts. Thanks to everyone for coming out!

Invited Talk: Lorentz Workshop

I gave an invited talk at the 2022 Lorentz Workshop "Bringing Stellar Evolution and Feedback Together" on the status of supernovae inclusion in feedback simulation studies, particularly lecturing on the need for newer models to invoke binary systems. The blurry pictures from the left are screenshots from the recording. This conference represented not only an academic first for giving a presentation; this was also my first trip abroad, ever!