Graduating Sr. Kaitlyn Szekerczes wins Fulbright Fellowship

Kaitlyn Szekerczes (Physics, UMBC) has won a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, to be conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany next year. Ms. Szekerczes majored in Physics with a minor in Astrophysics while at UMBC, and conducted research into Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) during her time as a research assistant in the Meyer/Georganopoulos astrophysics group. TDEs are rare events where a star or dense cloud of gas stray too near an otherwise ‘inactive’ super-massive black hole and are torn apart, producing a very bright and transient signal across the electromagnetic spectrum. For her Fulbright project, Ms. Szekerczes will be developing simulations of the sky in order to estimate the rate of gravitationally lensed TDEs. After the fellowship, Ms. Szekerczes will be pursuing a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University.