3 2 1 4 5 6 - “I would call myself an artist-astronomer,” says Natalia Guerrero, a fourth-year PhD and second-year MFA student at the University of Florida. While her scientific studies focus on astronomy and exoplanets, her artistic pursuits are multi-media explorations of her scientific identity. I have known of Natalia since I was a teenager. We both attended the same high school in Orlando, Florida, a stone’s throw away from Universal Studios, where the screams of tourists on roller coasters were our constant companions as we walked the open-air halls. We grew up under night skies more known for evening fireworks and the occasional rocket launch from Cape Canaveral than for a clear view of the cosmos. When each of us left Orlando, neither had any inkling that a shared pursuit of understanding the universe and our place in it would bring us back together fifteen years later. Growing up, Natalia had her sights set on being a writer. It came as a surprise to her that she enjoyed the problem-solving nature of math and science. A AbGradCon25 current events project in a science class led her to astrophysics. “The thing that actually really struck me about it was not so much the subject matter as the sense that people didn’t really know what they were doing. The way that we’re taught science is sort of like — we know everything, everything is figured out, we have all the answers. So to be introduced to a science where it’s like, no, black holes are still this big mystery … It made me feel like, oh, this is a place where I could make a contribution.” Natalia headed to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue a degree in physics. There, she worked on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. When a fellow scientist, Sarah Ballard, got a faculty offer from the University of Florida, Natalia was delighted. “Oh, I’m from Florida! Let me tell you all these cool things about Florida. And alligator safety.” Soon, she headed back to her home state to work with her mentor on a PhD. 1 & 2: BY QUADRY CHANCE; 3: COURTESY OF UF CENTER FOR ARTS, MIGRATION, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP; 4: BY SHEILA SAGEAR; 5: COURTESY OF MARIA GUERRERO; 6: BY STUDIO T
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