Talks and Presentations
An unexpected joy of pursuing astrophysics has been giving my talks at amazing places like Greece, Italy, the Netherlands... and how could I forget Urbana-Champagne, Illinois?! Seriously, I had never stepped foot out of the U.S. until 2022. Little Megan dreamed of studying the skies, but did not even know to dream about having this much fun along the way.
September 2024: Talk at "Tidal Disruption Events and Nuclear Transients: Entering the Data-Rich Area"
In Heraklion, Greece, I updated the TDE community on the significance of high-ionization coronal lines discovered, for the first time, concurrent with the optical peak of a TDE. I even got to share my favorite plot, which you can see for yourself in the full paper which was published December 2024!
January 2024: Winter AAS
In New Orleans, Louisiana, I prioritized updating the transients community on the fascinating discovery of AT 2022upj with spectra from Las Cumbres Observatory unveiling a first-of-its-kind TDE. Afterwards I went back to my normal plans: eating as much étouffée as humanly possible.
July 2023: Talk at "The Restless Nature of AGN" in Napoli, IT
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......
2022: 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! (2025 edit: I have since deleted my Twitter account entirely, so this link is currently dead, but I am working on creating an archived version to keep a record of the awesome undergrads and grad students that the thread highlighted!)
2022: Astro on Tap
I've 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!
2022 Invited Talk: Lorentz Workshop in Leiden, NL
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!