Simona Miller

"I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in mathematics and the physical world around me, a passion which took off full force in college. However, I do know exactly when I first heard about LIGO. I was a senior in high school when GW150914 was announced. I remember feeling enthralled but having *so* many questions. Fast forward two and a half years, and I'm a sophomore in college who just learned that they got accepted to LIGO's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at Caltech to study the signature of orbital eccentricity in binary black hole systems' gravitational radiation - an experience that would change my life forever in the best possible way! Almost two years after being a LIGO SURF student at Caltech, I'm still in very close contact with one of my mentors from the program and one of my fellow SURF students who has turned into one of my best friends! My summer as a LIGO SURF student confirmed that I want to dedicate my life to studying astrophysics and gravity. Thanks to LIGO, I'm now my friends' and family members' go-to for any questions about black holes and outer-space."

Simona Miller is an undergraduate senior at Smith College. For their undergraduate thesis, Simona is analyzing the distribution of spins of merging black holes. Simona has also done LIGO instrumentation development while working at the GEO 600 site, designing and building improved readout electronics. Their favorite gravitational wave event is GW170729 because it happened on their birthday! Outside of science, Simona likes to rock climb, bike, read (mostly scifi/fantasy), and play Dungeons & Dragons.