Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: The Early Universe Laboratory: Primordial Phenomena as Probes of New Physics

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Sarah Geller is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and activities related to broadening participation by members of groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship to Dr. Geller supports her research project entitled “Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: The Early Universe Laboratory: Primordial Phenomena as Probes of New Physics” under the mentorship of a sponsoring scientist. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of California, Santa Cruz and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Stefano Profumo. Dr. Geller will pursue a research project to study cosmological phenomena which are relics of the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang, including primordial black holes, first-order phase transitions, and gravitational waves. She plans to identify the generic features characterizing large classes of early universe models and to make predictions to compare with forthcoming measurements, helping to determine the plausibility of various early-universe scenarios for early-universe physics. Dr. Geller will bring a workshop series that she co-created at MIT to UC Santa Cruz. This workshop series, entitled "Filling the GAPS", is designed to teach application and professional skills to senior undergraduate students with an emphasis on providing mentorship to members of under-represented groups, including students who identify as members of traditionally underserved groups in STEM, women, and students with disabilities. She will teach a two-quarter course on professional skills and strategies at the graduate student level. In addition, she will design and build an (eventually open source) interactive accessibility app which will allow students and visitors to navigate accessible routes around campus, beginning with UC Santa Cruz.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.