Ms. Erin Kara '07

“It just gets your imagination going,” she says. “I find it fascinating because there’s so much out there we don’t understand. That’s why I’m in this field in the first place.”

 

Maybe her fascination could be traced back to gazing at a poster of the planets in Mrs. Lois Kehoe’s pre-kindergarten class. Or to her first physics class when she says she was “totally inspired” by former Upper School science chair Mr. Tom Bross.

 

“He was so good at answering those big ‘why’ questions,” Dr. Kara remembers. “His class made me appreciate that physics is a really fundamental way of understanding science and the universe so that’s why I was interested in continuing to study physics in college.”

 

Focusing on science in college initially seemed likely to lead to medical school like it did for her father. That is until she discovered her freshman astronomy class at Barnard College felt easy “because Mr. Bross was so thorough” and the physics field proved “very community-oriented,” fitting for Dr. Kara’s social nature.

 

Mentored and inspired by Barnard’s female professors, Dr. Kara immediately dived into research and along the way grew her confidence to shine within a male-dominated discipline.

 

Combine drive and intelligence with eloquence and an affable personality and it’s easy to see how Dr. Kara has secured coveted positions as a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow and Joint Space-Science Institute Fellow at the University of Maryland and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

On the heels of completing her PhD at Cambridge University and starting her tenure at the University of Maryland, Dr. Kara garnered headlines and an article in the esteemed Nature science journal with her discovery of a star ripped apart by a supermassive black hole.

 

Studying what are referred to as tidal disruption events, Dr. Kara follows individual stars as they lose their track, wander too close to a supermassive black hole sitting at the center of the galaxy they inhabit, succumb to strong tidal forces from the black hole that rips it apart and, for a moment, lights up the entire galaxy.

 

“We think this happens once every hundred thousand years, but because we’re monitoring hundreds of thousands of galaxies a year, we see these things happenings fairly frequently,” she says.

 

As an observational astronomer at NASA she’s supporting the $1 billion NICER (the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR) Mission to develop a telescope to study black holes, set to complete in 2028. Since its launch in early June, Dr. Kara has already been able to study data from this telescope and “it’s really some of the best data on black holes that we’ve ever seen before,” she says.

 

While it’s exciting to be at the forefront of historic scientific discoveries what’s equally satisfying to Dr. Kara is sharing her research with the public. She sees it as an important part of her job and welcomes the opportunity, in whatever forms it takes.

 

From dispelling myths for science fiction fans as part of a panel at the Awesome Con convention in Washington, DC to presenting at conferences all over the world and inspiring the next generation of MA lifers with a visit during Lower School Math Week, Dr. Kara revels in her ability to spur public intrigue and curiosity about the universe.

 

“She’s just incredible all the way around,” gushes Mr. Bross. “I’m thrilled to think of one of my former students doing this kind of important work. She’s a real role model.”

 

While it would be easy for Dr. Kara to set five- or ten-year career goals, she’s more inclined to see where her work will take her and enjoy the discoveries along the way. “I’m just loving what I’m doing now and I’m going to continue it as long as it’s fun for me and as long as I can do the kind of work I want to do.”