{"id":31412,"date":"2019-08-13T15:45:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=31412"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:12:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:12:12","slug":"new-student-thao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=31412","title":{"rendered":"New student wants to uncover the mysteries of the universe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pa
Pa Chia Thao (photo by Jon Gardiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pa Chia Thao decided she wanted to become a scientist in sixth grade, but she rarely saw other women \u2014 let alone women of color \u2014 in her STEM classes or textbooks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember in high school I took a robotics class, and in the whole classroom, out of like 25 people, there were only three women,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing in that environment, I noticed it. It was really hard. I was intimidated, and I didn\u2019t always feel welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Thao didn\u2019t quit. Instead, she persevered all the way to Carolina, where she will soon begin her first year as a doctoral student in the College of Arts & Sciences\u2019\u00a0physics and astronomy<\/a>\u00a0department as a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow.<\/p>\n

Thao said she has had to fight to be heard and taken seriously in the male-dominated field, but the questions that inspired awe in Thao as a little girl continue to drive her today.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my interests is: could there possibly be life out there? What makes Earth so special that it\u2019s able to sustain life? Or is it really not that special to begin with?\u201d she said. \u201cThese are the overarching questions. It might just be one piece of the puzzle, but it\u2019s something. It\u2019s getting us closer to those answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since UNC-Chapel Hill has access to state-of-the-art telescopes all over the world, from the Cerro Pach\u00f3nmountain in Chile to a field station in Cape Town, South Africa, Thao will now be able to look across the universe to learn how planets evolve.<\/p>\n

Her advisor, Andrew Mann, is the perfect person to mentor Thao to success, not only because he studies\u00a0young planets that may one day sustain human life<\/a>, but because he understands the obstacles Thao has had to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my voice matters with him,\u201d she said. \u201cI appreciate it because he\u2019s always willing to listen. I know research is the biggest thing, but it\u2019s also about having that strong relationship with your advisor, which ensures a supportive environment, so that when you wake up and go to work, you\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mann enjoys working with Thao just as much as she enjoys being part of his research team.<\/p>\n

\u201cPa Chia is one of the most driven and thoughtful researchers I have had the pleasure to work with,\u201d he said. \u201cI was excited when she decided to come to UNC and continue to study young exoplanets with our team, despite numerous offers of admission from other highly-ranked graduate programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the academic year begins, Thao aims to find a community of Tar Heels who are working to advance astronomy, as well as the representation of women and minorities in STEM.<\/p>\n

Until then, the Minnesota native has a list of Carolina landmarks to check out, starting with the Morehead Planetarium and Observatory, where some of America\u2019s most famous astronauts trained in space navigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much UNC was investing in space research,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to be part of it and to continue it. I feel very fortunate to be part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thao plans to work in an observatory after completing her Ph.D., where she can share her research and passion with others.<\/p>\n

More importantly, Thao hopes to inspire more young girls and people of color to pursue STEM careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething [Mann] said that always speaks to me is that I might never win a Nobel Prize for research, but what I can do \u2014 my power \u2014 is to give people these opportunities to research and learn,\u201d she said, \u201cand that matters. I feel so fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Emilie Poplett, University Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pa Chia Thao arrived at Carolina with two big goals: to find a community of Tar Heels working to advance astronomy, and to support the representation of women and minorities in the scientific field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,29,33,17,21,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-general","category-media-news","category-natural-sciences-mathematics","category-news","category-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49503,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31412\/revisions\/49503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}