Nicole Thom - Staff Assistant

Hello everyone!! I'm Nicole, one of your LPSA staff assistants for this year.  I'm really looking forward to having a great time this summer!

A little bit about me. I am I did my undergraduate work in astronomy at Yale, and will be graduating with a Masters in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota this May.

I was an LPSA intern last summer, and I absolutely loved the experience (as I'm sure you will too!!).  I worked with Brian Jackson on a project titled "Atmospheric Mass Loss and Tidal Evolution of Exoplanets." I had no idea what any of that meant until I got there for the summer, but I really loved the project.  In fact, I continued my research from LPSA at UND for my thesis this year. 

This is on the LPSA field trip to the Channeled Scablands in Washington last year.

On the personal side, I was born and raised in Edgeley, North Dakota (population 650).  I grew up on a family farm, where we grow wheat and soy beans and raise beef cattle.  My biggest love is definitely the bagpipes (and Scotland in general).  I'm sure you'll all learn to love them by the end of the summer too :)