Maurice Wilson's

From my research summaries to my conference posters to my CV, background information about my work is given throughout. However, more information about me is below.

I am a PhD candidate in the Astronomy Department at Harvard University. I joined their graduate program in 2016 as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow. My breadth of expertise ranges from instrumentation for ground-based observatories to magnetic activity of our Sun to exoplanets orbiting other stars. (Astronomers will appreciate the spatial range there: from the Earth to our star to other stars.) I have been conducting this research with Jason Eastman (for instrumentation and exoplanets) and John Raymond (for solar physics) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

I think public outreach inside and outside of academia is important. At the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, I enjoy teaching people of all ages about my science. As a graduate student, I mentor summer interns that come from all across the country to participate in the various astronomy internships at the CfA. I like to speak at middle schools and high schools to explain the celestial phenomena that astronomers like me study for a living. I am most passionate about mentoring students (ranging from middle school to graduate school) because mentorships are the primary reason why I have developed into the scientist I am today.

Outside of professional and volunteer work, I attempt to squeeze into my schedule some fun hobbies. The athlete in me enjoys any activity that is outdoors or that gives me a good workout. However, I would say that my main hobbies are web development and dancing. I like to create websites from scratch, just for fun. In fact, this site is one of the websites I coded myself using HTML, CSS, Javascript on the client side and Django on the server side. As for dancing, I am well-versed in the ways of Salsa. I am also proficient in Bachata, Kizomba, Rueda, and Casino (and some Swing). Basically ... if I hear spanish music, my feet start moving.