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Jennifer Rodriguez

@astrojennifer.bsky.social

Astronomy PhD Student at Ohio State 🌌 She/her/ella 🇨🇱

7 Posts485 Follower203 Folgt
Marshall@captain-exoplanet.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Huge congratulations to my first (co)-supervised grad student, Dr. Connor Basinger, who successfully defended his Ph.D. today! 🎉🔭🪐 His research spanned from using stellar models to tackle the Faint Young Sun probably to high-resolution transmission spectroscopy of an ultra hot Jupiter.

Trevon Logan@trevondlogan.bsky.social · 4mo ago

If you think legislation that targets “low enrollment degrees” only impacts the humanities please look at this list. Degrees in chemistry, math, physics, political science, data analytics, psychology and economics are being eliminated. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/16/o...

Ohio's public universities are eliminating nearly 90 degree programs as a result of Senate Bill 1 • Ohio Capital Journal

Nearly 90 degree programs have been identified to be cut at Ohio’s public universities since Senate Bill 1 was signed into law a year ago.

ohiocapitaljournal.com

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 5mo ago

Our PhD student Kennedy Orwa, who studies applications of AI to health care, was hastily deported today to Kenya along with his 13-year-old son without opportunity to speak to legal counsel. King 5 reports that he held a valid visa that was rescinded without explanation.

UW graduate student deported through SEA as protesters demand answers

A union representing University of Washington graduate student workers says Kennedy Orwa’s student visa was rescinded without explanation.

king5.com

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Among the firsts of Artemis II, it will be the first time a person of color and Black astronaut (Victor Glover), first woman astronaut (Christina Koch), and first Canadian and non-US citizen astronaut (Jeremy Hansen) travel beyond low Earth orbit and to the Moon. 🚀

NASA image of the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission (left to right): NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. From https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-names-astronauts-to-next-moon-mission-first-crew-under-artemis/
Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 5mo ago

All the news today caused the major outlets to forget that we are taking the first human flight to the moon tomorrow in >50 years! I think about all the wonder & inspiration that came from the Apollo and Voyager missions & how we are missing that now bc of all the terrible things happening. 🔭🚀

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The @axisprobe.bsky.social team learned that the phase A concept study report of AXIS (the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite) will not be reviewed because the lost personnel at NASA Goddard and government shutdown impacted our schedule and budget. 🔭 Here is the PI's e-mail with the explanation.

Email from Chris Reynolds to the AXIS Team. Subject is disappointing AXIS news. Text of e-mail reads: Dear AXIS Friends, The AXIS team has received some very disappointing news – we have been informed by NASA HQ that AXIS is not eligible for selection and hence the Concept Study Report (CSR) will not be subjected to the full review process. AXIS represents the scientific aspirations of a large international community. As a member of one of the AXIS science working groups, you deserve a candid explanation from the PI of what happened and why. That is the purpose of this note. NASA’s decision was programmatic and not based on a review of the technology or science; the mission profile described in the submitted CSR was over the allowed budget and schedule. How was such a thing possible? In short, with NASA-GSFC as the AXIS managing center, the mission formulation process was critically compromised by the seismic shifts occurring in NASA and the Federal government. The AXIS study team was hit hard by three unprecedented challenges: NASA’s Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) and the pressure at GSFC to resign/retire created a rapid and uncontrolled loss of over 20 personnel with key expertise during a critical mission formulation period, including the main GSFC Project Manager (Jimmy Marsh) and the X-ray mirror lead (Will Zhang) and many discipline engineers.GSFC priorities rapidly realigned to the FY2026 President’s Budget Request (PBR) that eliminated the Probe program, further reducing the availability of GSFC engineering and mission formulation personnel (incl. cost analysts and schedulers) over the critical Summer and Fall months. Key work was halted for almost seven weeks when the core GSFC AXIS study team, dominated by NASA civil servants, was furloughed during the government shutdown. NASA HQ’s extension to the CSR submission deadline (from 18-Dec-2025 to 29-Jan-2026) was inadequate compensation for the disruption and lost time. Taken together, these factors disrupted the basic grass-roots costing process (which requires extensive “reach back” to the discipline engineers to assess labor requirements) as well as the cost-design iteration process that is central to the formulation of a cost-capped and schedule-constrained mission. While the mission design was finalized in April, our initial grass-roots costing (which was ~10% over budget) could only be completed in September due to the lack of assigned resources. With the subsequent government shutdown and then “pens down” in early-December forced by the GSFC Executive Review process, there was no opportunity to work through the set of cost/schedule savings that had already been identified by the AXIS team. Ultimately, the GSFC executive council gave AXIS leadership the choice of submitting a CSR with a non-compliant schedule and cost, or not submitting a CSR at all. We of course proceeded with the submission, including a narrative that we understood the path to a cost-compliant profile (that we would have discussed with the review panels during the Site Visit). NASA HQ has ruled this stance to be unacceptable. It is important to stress that NASA’s programmatic decision was before any technical review had been conducted. The decision was NOT due to any concerns about AXIS technology. Indeed, the AXIS Phase A work had major successes with furtheringIndeed, the AXIS Phase A work had major successes with furthering the key technologies. GSFC’s Next Generation X-ray Optics (NGXO) team successfully demonstrated iridium-coated, stress-compensated mirror segments that meet AXIS baseline requirements (i.e. segment-level performance at sub-arcsecond level).  NGXO also built the first AXIS demonstrator mirror module, learning critical lessons about mirror alignment, mounting and bonding. On the detector side, MIT quickly moved to fabricate AXIS-like CCDs and, working with our colleagues at Stanford, recently demonstrated that they achieve the required readout rate and spectral resolution. Similarly, NASA’s decision was NOT a judgment of the importance of AXIS science. The AXIS science case was rated excellent in the Step 1 review, and it only became stronger during our Phase A study. The AXIS Community Science Book, which many of you contributed to, is an extremely powerful demonstration of the relevance and importance of high-resolution X-ray observations to all areas of astrophysics. The Science Book is one of the most important legacies of the AXIS Phase A study and, I believe, will help define future mission concepts for many years to come. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all of your work on this. AXIS has been a long journey; we started under the leadership of Richard Mushotzky more than nine years ago. During that time, it’s been an enormous privilege to work with amazing people; the AXIS science team, the incredible/brilliant GSFC and Northrop Grumman engineers, and the wider astrophysics community. I am, quite frankly, livid that AXIS ultimately fell victim to the programmatic chaos of 2025. The astronomical community deserves better. I hope that NASA leadership, especially at GSFC and HQ, can have an honest discussion about how to better support and protect programs during extraordinary times. For now, as a community, we must look forward. There is still one excellent mission under consideration for the Probe program, PRIMA, and we wish them a smooth and speedy path to selection and flight. In X-ray astronomy, the SMEX and MidEX programs represent concrete pathways for focused, high-impact missions, and the scientific case we built for AXIS provides a strong foundation for those concepts. The technologies we advanced in Step 1 and Phase A, particularly the NGXO mirror work and the MIT/Stanford detector demonstrations, can anchor the next generation of proposals. Most importantly, the AXIS Community Science Book, representing more than 500 scientists across, is a living document and a powerful signal to NASA leadership that this community is organized, serious, and not going anywhere. I encourage everyone to use it actively, as a resource for future concept development, for Astro2030 engagement, and for building the next mission that will deliver high angular resolution X-ray imaging to address the fundamental questions about black hole growth, galaxy evolution, and the hot universe that motivated AXIS from the beginning. This community built something remarkable over nine years and that doesn't end here. Thank you again for your support of AXIS over these times. Best Chris and the AXIS leadership team
Pop Base@popbase.tv · 7mo ago

Bad Bunny condemns ICE during his #GRAMMYs speech for Best Música Urbana Album: “Before I say thanks to god, I’m going to say, ICE out. We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we are humans and we are Americans.”

Bild
Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Great article by @alexwitze.bsky.social on hurdles to attend SACNAS and NSBP/NSHP this year, with quotes from me & @astrojennifer.bsky.social: "even with all the barriers and uncertainties, people showed up, supported one another, and shared their science and stories with honesty and resilience". 👏

Alexandra Witze@alexwitze.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Following Trump's DEI cuts, attendance has plunged at some conferences for scientists from underrepresented groups. The loss of federal support means fewer chances for people to network, share science, and develop new career paths. Still, attendees say "the sense of solidarity remains strong".

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Great @astrobites.bsky.social article by @skylargrayson.bsky.social on OSU astronomy PhD student Sebastian Lopez's paper showing how PAHs (polycyclic aromatric hydrocarbons) follow cold gas in the outflows of M82, with a great classic rock-inspired title! 🔭 astrobites.org/2025/11/20/m...

Dust in the Wind: A New Tool for Understanding Galactic Outflows

The galaxy M82 is host to an extended multiphase wind driven by star formation. Today's paper attempts to use JWST observations of dust in the wind to understand the structure of its cooler gas.

astrobites.org

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Honored to receive the 2026 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award! To see how the DEI ban in Ohio influences our university, please see the OSU announcement of the award (left) vs the actual APS citation for the award (right).

Lopez receives physics award Laura Lopez, a professor in the Department of Astronomy, is the recipient of the 2026 Edward A. Bouchet Award from the American Physical Society. The award honors Lopez’s pioneering contributions to X-ray astronomy, as well as her transformative leadership of mentoring programs for undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs.Laura A. Lopez, The Ohio State University 2026 recipient, Edward A. Bouchet Award For pioneering contributions to X-ray astronomy, including foundational studies of supernova remnants, compact objects, and stellar feedback in galaxies, and for transformative leadership in advancing equity and inclusion in physics through innovative mentorship programs, national advocacy, and unwavering support for students from historically marginalized communities.
Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 10mo ago

For the record, I'm in hour 28 of air travel from SFO to Columbus, and I would take this any/every day(s) over Democrats agreeing to take away healthcare. What was the point of all this just to be complicit with the same terrible outcome?

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Hello, today marks day 2 (hour 26). I left my LAX residency after 9 hours yesterday to adopt the nomadic life, traveling ever eastward. I now live in DFW Terminal A where the cost of living is far improved to LAX. As Ohio grows nearer, I contemplate: at what point do I drive home? XOXO, LAL

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Excited to attend the @astrosociety.org gala tonight & receive the Nancy Grace Roman Award! I read about her life & career on my way here. Did you know she was responsible for making NASA data archives public so that everyone could benefit, not just PIs? Such an amazing impact on our field. 🔭

Laura Lopez@ohdearz.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Folks in my department fought to attend these meetings by showing our white colleagues are members and participants. OSU said it didn't matter because the meetings may still be exclusionary (even though they aren't). It is maddening and racist to limit attendance at affinity group conferences.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · 10mo ago

What’s especially wild (legally) about this is that NSBP, NSHP, and SACNAS have always welcomed people of all backgrounds, including white people. NSHP has had a white president, my SACNAS leadership institute class has several white members, and NSBP has a sizable white membership.