Antara Basu-Zych shared the story of her professional career from student to scientist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy's weekly Physics & Astro Tea.
Career paths are not always linear, a truth that Antara Basu-Zych relayed to the Physics & Astro Tea crowd.
Hosted weekly by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Physics & Astro Tea promises engaging discussions, thought-provoking ideas and a delightful spread of refreshments. Open to all students, faculty and staff, this gathering is the perfect opportunity to connect with fellow physics aficionados in a relaxed and informal setting. Meetings take place in the third-floor lounge of Innovation Hall at 3:20 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Basu Zych became interested in astronomy at a young age at went to the University of California at Berkeley, but found herself burned out by the time she graduated. She spent time working at a telecommunications company before finding a job as a docent at a science museum. While at the museum, she was motivated to study for the physics subject GRE and apply to graduate school at Columbia University, where she graduated in 2009.
Basu-Zych left graduate school for a three-year post-doctoral position at NASA and another four-year stint on soft money, a type of external-grant funded position. Basu-Zych currently has a joint appointment with NASA-Goddard and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, primarily working on multi-wavelength studies of starburst galaxies over the history of the universe. She collaborates with Associate Professor of Physics Chris Richardson and was able to spend several days at Elon in late October meeting with classes and research students.