This week’s Woman of the Week is Georgia Mraz, a senior at Union.

Mraz was nominated by Francis Wilkin, the Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy and Observatory Manager. Wilkin states “I have known Georgia for nearly four years as her academic advisor and professor for several classes. She never ceases to amaze me in the way she can make excellent progress in her research while also being captain of the women’s soccer team. To date she has contributed no fewer than ten exoplanet observations to NASA’s TESS follow-up team, been invited to a special sub-group with access to telescope time, and succeeded in getting two grants for her research.”

Mraz states that her proudest accomplishments are “my advisor (Professor Wilkin) and I being a part of the NASA TESS Follow up Team to determine exoplanet candidates and being able to present at their conference last year at MIT. Recently, we have been added to an additional team to analyze higher priority data from LCO Observatory. I am also proud of being an intern with URSA Space Systems and creating a python script to predict satellite coverages.” In addition, she states “I am proud to have led the Women’s soccer team at union for the past two years.”

Mraz is passionate about “spreading education and research. Whether it be conducting higher level research and presenting your findings or volunteering to tutor students and assisting in science classrooms spreading knowledge is important and excites people around you.” She also states “I am passionate about athletics and fitness. I think they are great ways to bring people together with different backgrounds and encourage you to be the best you can be.”

Mraz looks up to “[her] older brother who is constantly finding a new goal or challenge to achieve.”

To Mraz, being a woman at Union means “breaking glass ceilings. It means being strongly determined about what you’re passionate about.”