Biography
Taylor is a 4th-year graduate student working with Prof. Casey Papovich, studying some of the most distant galaxies ever discovered. These galaxies existed less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang (for reference, the universe is approx. 13.7 billion years old now!). In order to study these distant sources, she uses near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to target their redshifted ultraviolet light. This is challenging, as these distant galaxies are also incredibly faint (much fainter than the night sky) which requires her to use one of the best NIR spectrographs in the world, called MOSFIRE, which can be found on one of the famous 10-meter Keck Observatory telescopes located in Hawai'i. // When she's not doing research, Taylor loves to dive into activism and outreach -- breaking stereotypes of what a scientist should look like (check out the #UniqueScientists link!) and making sure that anyone and everyone feels they can belong and thrive in the sciences. She also has a ton of hobbies that she's somewhat good at keeping up with, such as playing cello, crafting, reading, hiking, and taking countless pictures of her two cats.