Nutsinee Kijbunchoo

"I decided that I wanted to do astrophysics after I looked through a telescope for the first time (I was 18, a bit old, but not too late). I always thought black holes were cool but distorted space and gravitational waves got me hooked. I somehow managed to merge drawing with science (well, at least the human side of it). I make comics out of things that happen around me. As I'm surrounded by lab equipment and scientists, it's only natural my comics sometimes reflect life of grad students, lab, and physicists. I'm proud that I make LIGO comics that people could enjoy. Some comics are just internal jokes that no one else would ever understand! I'm also proud of the fact that I pushed the "Observe" button the night we detected the first gravitational wave GW150914. I was the operator on shift. So happy I didn't screw things up...So, GW150914 is my favorite. It's the event that changed what we know about Einstein's general relativity forever. I even got a tattoo of the waveform!"

Nutsinee Kijbunchoo is a second-year graduate student at The Australian National University who works on methods for "squeezing" light to increase gravitational-wave interferometer sensitivity. Outside of gravitational waves, Nutsinee likes to "drink and draw" and is a well-known artist with a popular comic called Antimatter, which depicts life in academia and beyond. In addition, Nutsinee has recently started a YouTube channel called Nutsinee's Vlog Book. You can also follow Nutsinee on Twitter (@Gmv2_c4r).