I've been mum on my
life's happenings recently. Now that it's all settled, I'm going to
share with you what's going on. Comments and suggestions welcome!
STEM & Social
Media Outreach
As someone guilty of
taking on too much at once, I'm pleased to have I wrapped up two
projects. At the start of June, my favorite conference returned from
a three-year hiatus: the Next-generation Suborbital Researchers
Conference. I ran social media for the conference activities. I wish
it wasn't over because I had a blast, but I'll be back next year.
I spent some time
assisting Benignant STEM Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated
to educating students, especially girls, in developing countries and
underserved areas. So inspirational! There are many potential
opportunities for grants, fundraising, partnerships, collaborations,
and projects for a new STEM nonprofit. The process can be daunting. I
helped to point them on the right path.
Commercial
Spaceflight Federation
I've been searching
for a new space organization “home” for a few years now. When I
attended the CSF spring members meeting last year, I felt it! But my
former employer's membership dissolved along with its existence. I
didn't let that stop me! I'm excited to be working with CSF again in
whatever small ways I can. Right now I'm helping them identify
sponsors and prepare for an upcoming FAA AST conference.
New Client
Starting Monday,
I'll be an analyst for a new client. I love how global this company is, with colleagues around
the world providing different perspectives. My first project will be a cool (and hot!) topic to start with! I'll write up a more
detailed blog entry once I start work.
Science
One of my biggest
professional mistakes this year has been relying on others to conduct
science. As a result, I waited and waited, and still haven't gotten
my hands dirty. Either projects were delayed or I simply wasn't
included. This is a poor way to do science collaboration. I decided
to take matters into my own hands. I finally allowed myself time to
brainstorm science recently, and an idea came to me.
How I wish I could
tell you about the proposal I'm writing via Astralytical! I read an
article explaining that science bloggers are hesitant to write about
their unpublished work because they fear being scooped. I can tell
you that's true. It's related to my expertise in planetary regolith
and it touches upon human space habitation in a way I haven't seen
before. I still need to complete a literature review to put this
experiment in context. I may reach out to potential collaborators,
but on my own terms.
Book Writing
I wrapped up the
millennial panel interview process last month! But Adventures in Book Writing is on
hold for now because I'm crazy busy and there's no deadline. Sorry!
I'll get back to it by the end of the summer for sure.
Ohio, Here I Come
Coincidentally, my
husband has been going through a job search as well. He just accepted
a position at JP Morgan Chase in Columbus, Ohio. I've never even been
to Ohio, but I grew up in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania, so
I'm familiar with four seasons. We'll be moving within the month.
This is so
bittersweet for me. I love Florida! I love living in this area so
much that I moved here for undergrad, moved away to Huntsville, then
moved back. I love the warm weather and the lack of snow and “real”
winters. I love the beach, the water, the greenery, and the wildlife.
I love the rocket launches and the space happenings. I love my
friends and close-by family. I love the space community I've built
here. It's going to be very hard for me to leave!
Glenn Research
Center is one of the few NASA centers I've never been to, and it's
only two hours from Columbus. Ohio State University is gigantic and
has not only a physics department, but also an astronomy department,
a cosmology & astroparticle department, and a planetarium, so I
may find like-minded researchers and enthusiasts there. Ohio
Aerospace Institute seems to be a smaller equivalent to Space
Florida. I'll find my space peeps in Ohio, somewhere.
