We asked Dr. Lara Cullinane about what sparked her passion in astronomy, and how she pursued that interest into academic research!
Dr. Cullinane is a postdoctoral assistant researcher currently employed by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Astronomy, and research more broadly, generally attract curious people looking to solve the mysteries of our world. This trait, combined with a love of Star Trek, led Dr. Cullinane to look into local Australian universities with undergraduate astronomy programs. Continuing astrophysics research into a PhD, she details the highs and lows of postdoctoral work. To pursue a career in astronomy, Dr. Cullinane advises taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible, to gain early research experience and coding skills. One such program, SIP at UC Santa Cruz allowed me to meet Dr. Cullinane as a mentor, and work with international students from all around the world in hybrid (in-person or online) formats. Visit the SIP homepage here: https://sip.ucsc.edu/about/
Transcript:
Morgan: Hello. Thank you for accepting our interview. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Dr. Cullinane: Sure. I’m Lara Cullinane and I’m an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Morgan: Right. Thank you. So, when and how did you develop an interest in astro?
Dr. Cullinane: So I’ve always had, I guess, an interest in research and then learning new things, and in science more generally in astro. That started in high school and actually was because I became a fan of the TV show Star Trek, which is like a Sci-Fi series, and it was the original series that I really liked. I really liked Spock, who was the chief science officer of all the starships. And that was basically the coolest job I could imagine, to go out into the space and discover new things, new life, new civilizations, explore strange new worlds, as the intro would describe. I’m like, Well, I can’t have that job because it doesn’t exist yet. The next closest thing is to go into astronomy research. So that’s what really sparked my interest and I followed it from there.
Morgan: Do you mind expanding on that? How did you follow it? How did you pursue that?
Dr. Cullinane: So because I knew a little bit about sort of research more generally, I knew that’s sort of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do astro research. So I looked into–this is in high school– so I looked into undergraduate programs in universities that had astro departments, because not all of them do. And I was lucky that my sort of local institution, University of Queensland, did have a small but fairly productive astro department. So I decided that’s where I would do my undergraduate degree, and in particular to take as many opportunities I could to do astro research in my undergraduate degree with the people working there. And so I did a few research courses that let me work with them, I did a summer research project. I did a few sort of winter schools that were about learning astro, like as a sort of introductory level. And so having done all of those and having really enjoyed them and decided that, yes, this was the career path that I then sort of wanted to follow, then I applied to go and get the PhD. And that was also specifically in astronomy. And I moved institutions to the Australian National University, which had a pretty good reputation for astronomy at least in Australia. And so then having got my PhD then, and having enjoyed my PhD, I decided, yes, I will indeed continue on. And so I applied for postdoc positions, and that’s how I ended up here at Hopkins.
Morgan: Wow. Quick question. What would you have done if you didn’t enjoy the PhD?
Dr. Cullinane: There are lots of different options. A lot of people I know, one friend who decided research wasn’t for her, and so she went into data science. And there are a lot of ways you can spin that. There’s like the sort of defense jobs. So at least affiliated with Hopkins, there’s the Applied Physics laboratory. And so they do sort of like, it’s still research, but it’s more hands-on research with more practical applications rather than just theory, which is more what I do. Or there’s a lot of sort of data firms. Obviously the standard ones sare banks, but there’s like national labs, things like that. There are lots of other options. You can still do research, but maybe research that’s not in academia per se.
Morgan: Okay, so white you’re on your way to going through astro, were there any challenges, or did you ever think about quitting?
Dr. Cullinane: So I never thought about quitting because at least for me, I found enough joy in the things that I was doing that was always enough to overcome any temporary setbacks that I was feeling. If there was any one challenge, I would say it’s the fact that I have had to move around quite a lot, like you know, halfway across the world for this. I have another postdoc that will be in Germany, and that’s another halfway across the world job. And so that can always be a little bit hard if you’re moving far away from your friends and your family and support networks and going to a different culture, people speak different languages, et cetera. So that can be a little bit difficult. That’s probably, I guess, the biggest challenge, I would say. But at the same time, for me at least, I always took that as an opportunity as well, to see new places, meet new people. And at least in terms of overcoming that, I found it useful to stroll, to try and build support networks wherever I went. And so I have a great group of friends here, Hopkins’ other postdocs. And so we all sort of have those shared experiences that we’ve all had to move across the world. And so that’s been really helpful in terms of finding a sense of community, people who are going through similar things and understand what it’s like. I found that really helpful.
Morgan: Wow. Yeah. But in university or in the field specifically, did you ever encounter any gender gaps, like being the only female in, for example, a CS class?
Dr. Cullinane: Not very many people, women were in my undergraduate degree, and even in my high school physics class, I was, I think, one of five out of a class of 30-ish people and that’s, you know, not great. But I feel like now at least there are more initiatives in terms of keeping women engaged in STEM, which I think is nice. I think the other thing is I also became really good friends with those other five or six girls, and that was really helpful. So even though there weren’t very many of us, we were at least all close and all friends, so that was helpful that we sort of stuck together.
Morgan: Yeah. Do you have any advice for young women looking to enter astronomy? Like technical skills?
Dr. Cullinane: So I guess the one thing I would really recommend above anything else is to take as many opportunities as you can to do that hands-on research. So I didn’t have many opportunities to do that in high school, but as you know, now there’s a lot more programs like SIP* where you can do that and take those opportunities if and when they come up. That’s not to say it’s absolutely necessary to do all of them. Obviously, I’ve done okay because those programs didn’t exist for me. But if they are, if you do have the opportunity, I would say definitely take those. But definitely during undergrad, that becomes a lot easier. In terms of summer research or winter schools that may be only a week or intensive courses on either research or coding is also a particular technical skill. Not necessarily any particular language, but just to have a problem to go through, okay, here’s the steps that I need to do and think through to then arrive at some solution–that’s really helpful. And the best way to build that is also through practical applications to research. So taking those opportunities, I think, if and when they come up is the biggest piece of advice I can give.
Morgan: All right, thank you. And then one last fun question just to wrap it all up. If you could start over, would you pick astro again?
Dr. Cullinane: You know, I think I would, actually. I do really enjoy it. I don’t have any regrets.
Morgan: All right. Thank you so much.
Dr. Cullinane: You’re very welcome!
AI Summary:
Lara Cullinane, an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University, discusses her interest in astronomy and how she pursued a career in the field. She shares how her love for Star Trek sparked her curiosity and inspired her to pursue astronomy research. Lara talks about the challenges of moving around for her studies but also highlights the opportunities it provided to explore new places and build support networks. She mentions gender gaps in STEM fields but notes that there are more initiatives now to keep women engaged in science. Lara advises young women interested in astronomy to take advantage of hands-on research opportunities during their studies. In conclusion, she expresses no regrets about choosing astrophysics as her career path.