In two weeks I’ll be traveling to the University of Colorado at Boulder with my adviser, Lisa Kewley for a visit from Monday, April 27th, through Wednesday, April 29th. On Monday Lisa will be giving a colloquium on the chemical evolution of galaxies, and on Tuesday I’ll be giving a JILA lunch talk on modeling the environments of long-duration GRB host galaxies. I’m very excited about the visit, and the chance to learn more about the research being done at CU Boulder!

I got some very exciting news tonight – the Awards Committee at the IfA has selected me as this year’s recipient of the Helen Jones Farrar ARCS scholarship in astronomy! Helen Jones Farrar was a forward-thinking woman who was born in Honolulu in the 1890′s. She studied science at Smith College right here in Massachusetts, and later moved back to Hawaii (having lived in both places, and considering the winter we’ve just had here, I can certainly understand the decision!) She witnessed the building of the first telescopes on Mauna Kea and became an enthusiastic supporter of astronomy in her home state. After her death the ARCS scholarship in astronomy was established in her memory.

I’ll be back in Hawaii from April 17th through May 10th to go on two observing runs at Keck. During that time I’ll get to present my research to a campus-wide panel of ARCS board members, see posters detailing the research of the other University of Hawaii ARCS scholars in a variety of different disciplines (including oceanography, zoology, and geology/geophysics – it should be really interesting!), and attend an ARCS award banquet. I can’t wait!