TEACHING AND MENTORING

Teaching and mentoring have played an important role in my academic experience. Throughout my graduate and postdoctoral career, I have pursued a variety of educational and mentoring activities that I have found extremely rewarding and that allowed me to formulate and refine my own teaching and mentoring style. I have been a Teaching Fellow for a number of introductory astronomy courses for non-majors: at Harvard University for Science A-35 "Matter and the Universe''(Spring 2002 & 2003) and Science A-47 "Cosmic Connections'' (Fall 2005), and at UC Berkeley for Astronomy 10 "General Astronomy" (Fall 2000). I received numerous teaching awards and was invited twice to lecture at the Teaching Conference (2004, 2005) held at the Harvard Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

I also served as a Mentor for Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe, (WISHR) during 2003-2005 and was on the board of the Harvard Grad Women in Science and Engineering 2005 - 2007. Now, at Berkeley, I was a mentor with the Society for Women in the Physical Sciences (2007 - 2008). Beyond my mentoring and outreach activities (see CV), I have led professional development events for graduate students on e.g., How to give a Good Talk (My & Mo's presentation) (as part of the GradStudent-Postdoc-Seminars at UC Berkeley), co-organized Women in Astronomy chats at UC Berkeley and co-founded "Astro Women Cookies" at Harvard.

PUBLIC OUTREACH

Science does not live in a vacuum. As much as scientific research is important in itself, it is also important to communicate its results well to the broader public. The subject of astronomy with its innate public appeal is well-suited as a vehicle to inspire interest in science and the scientific thinking process, and thus I am very passionate about astronomy-related public outreach.

I recently held a public talk in the context of IYA (International Year of Astronomy) 2009 through the UC Berkeley public talk series, with 150-200 people in attendance (see above pictures). It was great! People really enjoyed the interactive nature of my talk and had excellent questions. A video of my talk, as well as all others during the monthly public talk series is available here. Over the years I have participated in and lead a number of outreach activies:

Public talks, e.g, at the Mount Diablo Astronomical Society, CA

"Ask an Astronomer" for "Sky & Telescope Magazine" on Black Holes

Lead a discussion on Supernovae and Supernova Remnants with local high school children in Cambridge, MA.

Video : Interview with high-school children from the Black Hole Summer Institute on SN and black holes: