Krista Lynne Smith
Physics, Southern Methodist University
Research Focus
About Krista
I am an observational astrophysicist studying the behavior of energy and matter around supermassive black holes, the formation and physics of jets ejected by black holes, and the effect of active galactic nuclei on star formation and galaxy evolution. I use a wide range of instruments, on the ground and in space, for my research, with particular expertise in the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) radio observatory, the Swift X-ray telescope, and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). My speciality is combining imaging and time-domain observations across the electromagnetic spectrum, and from novel applications of instruments to different astronomical sub-fields through software development, to generate a time-varying, pan-chromatic picture of accreting black holes.
Honors
2019 - Mars Fellow, 69th Annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
2017 - 2020 - Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship
2016 - Pelczar Award for Excellence Beyond Coursework (1 awarded university-wide per year), University of Maryland
2014 - 2017 - NASA Earth and Space Sciences Fellow
2013 - John Chi-Lin Wang Award for Best Overall Graduate Student Performance
2011 - Wentzel Fellow, University of Maryland
Education
Postdoc
KIPAC, Stanford University, 09/2017 - 07/2020
Ph.D.
Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, 08/2017
Master's
Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, 12/2013
Bachelor's
Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, 12/2010
