Sometime around the age of thirteen, I decided that I wanted to be an astronomer. (Thank you, Carl Sagan, for your inspiring character in Ellie Arroway.) If getting to explore the universe isn't enough of a job perk, I've also had the opportunity to travel quite a bit to collaborate with other astronomers and to present at conferences. In June, my reach extended even further as I took a three-week trip to South Africa to help build one of the most exciting astronomical experiments to date.
