I am both humbled and honored to say that I am joining the Mars 2020 science team as a graduate student intern this summer! I will be mentored by Dr. Katie Stack Morgan (basically who I want to be when I grow up) and I am so incredibly delighted to be working with her and the rest of the esteemed team at NASA JPL. I will be using a combination of Perseverance rover and orbiter-based evidence to aid in piecing together the geologic history around Jezero crater and the surrounding region.
When I was a senior in high school, I watched the Perseverance rover launch, and months later land on Mars. It was in that moment, that I decided that I wanted to be a part of it somehow. My young mind was (and still is, really) flabbergasted at the fact that we could 1. send an SUV-sized robot to another planet; 2. collect samples to return to us on Earth; and 3. figure out the geologic history for a location on a whole other planet. Isn't that just crazy?!
In truth, I never truly knew or thought that I would eventually have the opportunity to work with the very same people that are the whole reason I love Mars. I owe so much to the Mars 2020 team and this SUV sized robot currently 213 million miles away.
In the coming months, I will find out what it is like to be at the "center of the universe," which is what JPL is colloquially called. I can't wait to share what it is like! I am just over the moon and I am so indebted to everyone that has believed in me. Here's to Daring Mighty Things this summer!