NSF GRFP Activity Report: Year 5 (2020-2021)
Olivia Wilkins
For the last five years, my PhD work has been supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). Each year, fellows are required to submit an Annual Activity Report summarizing how the grantee progressed during the previous year as an NSF fellow. The program lasts a maximum of 5 years, so this is my last report.
I am grateful to have had this fellowship, and since it is possible because of taxpayer dollars, I think its right to share what I’ve been doing publicly. So, here it is! My final NSF GRFP activity report.
Year 5 Summary (as of April 12, 2021)
As my tenure as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on how much I’ve learned over the last five years as a PhD student, as well as how my research interests and goals have changed.
While I am still interested in the chemical reactions that make and break complex organic molecules (COMs) – interstellar carbon-containing chemicals with six or more atoms – as I was in my first year, I have also become increasingly interested in using molecules as probes to study the physical conditions of interstellar environments. Over the last year, my research of methanol in the Orion Kleinmann-Low (Orion KL) nebula, which is a relatively nearby star-forming region and chemical factory in our galaxy, has shifted from looking specifically at the chemistry of this molecule (like how it becomes a gas after forming on the icy mantles of tiny interstellar dust grains) to how methanol can be used to tell us about the motions of gas and the sources of heating throughout the nebula.
I have also been working on a pilot survey of star-forming regions in the so-called molecular ring, the inner parts of the spiral arms of the Milky Way where something like 70% of the molecular matter in the galaxy is thought to reside. Despite this region being teeming with chemical activity, it is further away than places like Orion KL, making it more difficult to observe because its signals are fainters and more difficult to resolve with radio telescopes. However, observing these regions are imperative because our current astrochemical models are biased toward nearby regions and a few distant but exceptionally molecule-rich environments. In other words, current astrochemical models bear little influence from the places in the Milky Way where most of the chemistry happens.
In addition to these research projects, I’ve also been writing and illustrating a book about astrochemistry for the American Chemical Society’s ACS In Focus series. The series is aimed at introducing scientists at any career stage to different areas of chemistry research. It uses an e-book platform so that videos and interviews can be woven throughout the text. Writing the book, which is set to publish in July 2021, has been especially rewarding because much of the artwork in the book is comprised of my own illustrations. Writing and illustrating a book is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, and I’m glad I got to apply this dream to a format that might help aspiring astrochemists settle into the field learning things I wish I had known when I was starting out.
My writing has also included a number of articles about science for online media, and I also just finished teaching my tenth term of Scientific Writing, a Caltech undergraduate course. I’ve also talked with high school students about astrochemistry research and participated in the Letters to a Pre-Scientist pen pal program that pairs scientists with grade school students in public schools. I’ve been maintaining a spreadsheet about the status of chemistry graduate programs with respect to the GRE exams, which are notoriously biased and a better indicator of socioeconomic background than scientific success. Similarly, I set up a grad school application mentoring program that pairs grad applicants with folks who share similar backgrounds who can provide advice and feedback on application materials.
I plan to wrap up my PhD sometime in the next year. After that, I don’t know where I’ll go. All I know is that the sky is not the limit. The cosmic microwave background is.
The cosmic microwave background, or CMB, is the oldest detectable electromagnetic radiation in the universe. Image from NASA/WMAP.