Physics Professor Cynthia Chiang featured in National Geographic
Physics Professor and National Geographic Explorer Cynthia Chiang is the subject of a new聽National Geographic聽article out today.
鈥淚t was written in some sense,鈥� that聽聽Cynthia Chiang would end up in observational cosmology 鈥� the study of the聽聽using specialized detectors and telescopes. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to lie, my father was a physicist. My mother鈥檚 an astronomer. But no kid wants to be like their parents,鈥� she jokes, semi-seriously.
Chiang always enjoyed building things. It wasn鈥檛 unusual for her to experiment with her father鈥檚 research equipment; disassembling vacuum chamber components and putting them back together like a child engineer. She thanks, in part, her short attention span for her evolving curiosity: 鈥淚 am always looking for something.鈥�
For the last few years, Chiang has been looking for signs of the universe鈥檚 early existence 鈥� from the birth of the first stars more than 13 billion years ago, to the preceding 鈥渃osmic dark ages鈥� 鈥� and she鈥檚 building her own equipment to do it. As a professor of physics at 平特五不中, she focuses on peering beyond the universe as it is known today, into its distant past, using novel radio technology.
