Samantha Wu

About Me

Hello! My name is Samantha Wu and I am a Carnegie Theoretical Astrophysics Center Fellow, based at Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena. I completed my Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Caltech in May 2024. For my research, I work on theoretical stellar astrophysics, using numerical calculations to study the interiors of stars.

Before coming to Caltech, I earned bachelor's degrees in Applied Mathematics and Astrophysics at UC Berkeley. Between graduating from Berkeley and starting at Caltech, I worked with Professor Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz's group at UC Santa Cruz.

Research

Publications: on ADS

Research Interests: My current focus lies in the realm of stellar evolution with applications to transient events. I am also interested in stellar oscillations and tides.

Community

I developed my passion for teaching while working at the UC Berkeley Student Learning Center, and I continued to learn about mentoring and STEM pedagogy through the Certificate of Practice in University Teaching at Caltech. I have also mentored for the LAMAT Institute , a REU at UCSC. See my mentee's work here!. At Caltech, I was a mentor for the Caltech Connection Program , which connects students at Pasadena Community College and other minority-serving institutions with Caltech graduate students and postdocs for research experiences.
I enjoy opportunities to do outreach, such as through the Stargazing Lectures for Caltech Astronomy Outreach . One especially memorable event was speaking at the Sequoia National Park Dark Sky Festival in September 2022.
During graduate school, I also served on the organizing committee for Caltech's Gender Minorities and Women in PMA, GWIPMA.

Contact

Email: swu@carnegiescience.edu