Written by Daniela Sierra and Nicole Castro
Theoretical Astrophysicist, Laura Blecha, attends the space club meeting held on February 20, 2020.
Our school’s space club had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Laura Blecha, a theoretical astrophysicist and an assistant professor at the University of Florida, on February 20th of 2020. Through a Skype call coordinated between her and the club’s president Gabriel Muriel, the members of the club had the opportunity to interact and ask questions with Dr. Blecha, which proved to be something various members of the student body were interested in, seeing as 12 MAST students attended this meeting. The club’s sponsor, Ms. Hernandez, and President, Gabriel Muriel, were happy to have been able to provide the opportunity.
As mentioned on flyers posted in classrooms all over the school, Dr. Laura Blecha works in the astronomy and physics department at the University of Florida (UF) as an assistant professor. Blecha has done a variety of research on a wide range of topics, focusing mainly on developing theoretical models, making predictions for supermassive black holes (sometimes SMBH, described as the largest type of black holes), and galaxy evolution.
Research of hers that stood out to the science community was the first spotting of black holes on an extremely rare collision course. Giving credit to Laura Blecha and her team, many articles explain how astronomers have recently revealed they have been able to observe close pairs of supermassive black holes inching closer to one another, nearing the creation of a mega black hole.
In addition to being a published researcher and professor, her community outreach has helped other women interested in her current field of expertise. She is a faculty coordinator for the Women in Physics and Astronomy (WIPA) group at UF, as mentioned in her profile/website. This group hosts reunions to facilitate the interaction of grad students and women in their prospective fields.
Mindy Nguyen, now a sophomore here at MAST, spoke about her experience upon meeting Ms. Blecha. She was happy to have been able to talk to the astrophysicist, mentioning how “She was patient, understanding, and really informative.” Mindy also discussed how Blecha explained the majority of her current research, as well as how she got into space study and how one who is interested would be able to get into it themselves.
One of the meeting attendees was Arianna Lopez. During her interview, Arianna revealed her experience with meeting Laura Blecha. "I was very excited to get to know Dr. Laura Blecha. She was extremely kind, and I loved hearing her talk about her journey when becoming an astrophysicist. Listening to her story motivated me to never give up on my goals and I hope one day I can achieve great things like her", said Arianna. She mentioned Blecha's focus on black holes. Blecha caught everyone's attention and made the science of black holes more interesting to everyone. According to Arianna, "Now that I've heard about them, it's cool to think something like that exists in our galaxy."
Another attendee was Arslon Mindubaev. During his interview, Arslon talked about some things he found interesting during the meeting with Dr. Blecha. Arslon mentioned being interested in the concept of black hole compression. Arslon stated that Blecha explained, “when black holes spin around each other they create waves that compress time in space.”
One thing that both Arianna and Arslon found interesting was the information Blecha gave about her school life. Blecha mentioned that during her high school years, she didn't have the best physics teacher, which is ironic considering her current job. Arianna stated, "hearing about her story and the struggles she had to face to be where she is today impacted me a lot. She mentioned not having a good physics teacher in high school which left her extremely unprepared for college physics...this showed me that no matter what, you always have to continue to push through and try your hardest."
Gabriel Muriel, the student who founded space club this year, realized that she and her friends were not the only students at MAST who kept up with NASA’s updates and articles. She then felt a duty to create a place where others who also had an interest in space could come together, meet new people, and hopefully make new friends. Since its beginning, space club, as described by those in the club, has developed into an amazing place where students can share their love of the wonders of outer space with their peers.
The Space Club at MAST@FIU had an amazing time talking about black holes with the one and only Dr. Laura Blecha and we would like to give a huge thank you to her for taking the time to share her expertise and knowledge.
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