I was born and raised in the land of sky blue waters (and 10,000+ lakes): Minnesota. I started my career in astronomy studying at Carleton College, a small liberal arts school in Northfield, MN, a.k.a. the town of "cows, colleges, and contentment." Being part of the community of "Carls" is fantastic -- full of some of the most intelligent and fascinating people I have ever met from all over the world. Carleton gave me a truly unconventional and amazing liberal arts experience, even extending to my physics education. While in undergrad, I worked on a few different research projects. I worked with Prof. Cindy Blaha the summer after sophomore year on emission line surveys of HII regions in Local Group Galaxies. Simultaneously, I coordinated the Young Astronomer's Summer Experience at Carleton, a two-week long summer camp/night school for middle-schoolers to learn about astronomy and how to use telescopes and CCDs. The following two summers, I was an NSF REU student at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico. I worked with Miriam Krauss, Michael Rupen, and Amy Mioduszewski on radio novae; I modeled the radio light curves of classical novae observed with the VLA and other radio interferometers. I graduated from Carleton magna cum laude with a B.A. in Physics in 2012.
I am now in graduate school at the University of Michigan. I don't believe there is a better college town to live in than Ann Arbor. I've been working with Keren Sharon on gravitational lensing in galaxy clusters since day one. Basically, I get to look at beautiful pictures from HST all day long (best job ever). Michigan has great observational resources, like the Magellan telescopes in Chile, which I get to use frequently. Chile: Come for the awesome seeing and world-class telescope facilities. Stay for the delicious empanadas, ceviche, and pisco sours.
Hobbies
Roller Derby: I recently became an Ann Arbor Derby Dime and am learning how to roller skate and ultimately how to play roller derby. In case you were wondering, my derby name is Cecilia Pain (#656). I don't have any action GIFS yet, so in the meantime, enjoy this placeholder video.
Golf: I picked up the game of golf shortly after I developed all the motor skills for it. My dad is an avid golfer and started teaching me at a young age. I played four years of varsity golf in high school followed by another four years of DIII intercollegiate golf at Carleton College. I also managed to "three-peat" as Northfield Golf Club Champion in the summers of 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Homebrewing: I'm an avid zymurgist. I've brewed about 20 batches of beer in the past 3 years.
Amateur astronomy: I have my own telescope that I take out occasionally. I've also used telescopes at Carleton College Goodsell Observatory, which back in the day kept accurate time for most of the midwestern railroads. Today, Goodsell houses two operating 100+ year old refracting telescopes that in their the time were world-class. I've had the privilege of using these telescopes for my personal enjoyment and for showing students and the local public cool astronomy things like galaxies and globular clusters.