Zenith Fellow Mentee, Class of 2024
McMaster University, Honours Astrophysics
Mentor: Casia McLeod

Kaitlyn’s path to astronomy didn’t start in the normal way. Her interests had never leaned towards science until, out of pure curiosity, she decided to enrol in an online physics course over the summer before her final year of high school. In the two months that followed, Kaitlyn completed her first physics course and discovered a love of Astrophysics.

A year later, Kaitlyn began her Honours Astrophysics degree at McMaster University on the other side of the country. During her first year, Kaitlyn joined two astronomy clubs on campus, the McMaster Undergraduate Academic Astronomy Club (MUAAC) and McMaster Sidewalk Astronomy. Over the years, Kaitlyn became Co-President of MUAAC and spent many hours working with the graduate students at McMaster to organize numerous events ranging from viewing events for the community to space symposiums.

Over the 2023 summer, Kaitlyn had the opportunity to work with the Planetary Science and Space Astronomy Missions team at the Canadian Space Agency. While there she worked on projects related to JWST, CASTOR, LiteBIRD, and ARIEL.

Now in her final year at McMaster, Kaitlyn just completed her independent study project on chemical anomalies in globular clusters and is finishing her undergraduate thesis where she looks into correlations between galaxy cluster dynamics and galaxy properties. In the future, Kaitlyn hopes to start her Master’s degree in Astrophysics, focusing on observational studies of globular clusters.

Outside her classes, Kaitlyn enjoys watching hockey, curling, and reading. She also loves hanging out with her friends and traveling as much as she can.

Kaitlyn is looking forward to being a Zenith Fellowship Mentee and is incredibly honoured to join the Fellowship Class of 2024.