ALMA
Radio array, part of the Event Horizon Telescope. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/W. Garnier
sketches
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astronomical instruments series
These were sketched to decorate the glass door and windows of the CRA's new office space on the Georgia Tech campus. Some enjoy a little bit more creative license than others (looking at you, IceCube), but are overall meant to be faithful representations of a few of the observational instruments used or developed by people in our department. So most of the credit really goes to the teams behind each of these telescopes.
LIGO
Gravitational wave detector, first of its kind, now a part of the LVK (LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA) gravitational wave detector network. Credit: Shobhit Ranjan (CRA/LIGO) , Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab
LISA
Future space-based gravitational wave detector made up of three spacecrafts on heliocentric orbits. Credit: ESA
Rubin
Large optical survey instrument based in Chile. Also the first major telescope named after a woman. Credit: NOIRLab NSF/DOE
Tech Tower
Clock tower on the Georgia Tech campus
Picture an Astronomer
Picture an Astronomer was
a symposium held at the University of Chicago in March 2025 aimed at addressing the persistent underrepresentation of
women in astrophysics.
Out of this symposium, more than 200 astronomers came together to author a
white paper of the same name, which synthesized
into a single documents a set of recommendations addressing each axis of inequality still endemic to the field.
This effort was helmed by then-graduate student and dear friend Ava Polzin, who asked if I could help illustrate
each section of the manuscript to hopefully entice readers to (at the very least) skim through the document.
Almost every sketch is based off of a different surrealist painting, which should all be linked under the matching drawing.
I've also linked to the corresponding sections in the paper, for ease of access.
Improving Belonging in Physics: The Role of Representation and Stereotype Threat
Inspired by René Magritte's Le Fils de l'Homme (1964)
Diminished Resources, Differential Praise, and Unequal Workloads
Inspired by Victor Vasarely's Moine (1937)
