Dr. Sarah Blunt

Newly-minted PhD, Caltech
Incoming CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern

Hi! I'm an astrophysicist, dubbed PhD in May 2023. My interests are constantly evolving, but I'm excited about work happening at the intersection of exoplanet astrophysics, stellar astrophysics, and data science. I am particularly interested in young, giant planets at the moment. In addition to research, I spend much of my time teaching and working on STEM equity & inclusion initiatives.

I will be starting my postdoc at Northwestern/CIERA in September 2023.

Here's a statement about a coauthor I've been listed with. Content warning: sexual harassment & abuse.

I am a coauthor on a few papers that also list Geoff Marcy, a serial sexual harasser and abuser, as an author. I felt (and feel) deeply conflicted about my decisions to remain on each of these papers. I believed my work on these papers was valuable and deserving of recognition, but I also understand that including his name on new papers was actively harmful to people who have been abused and are marginalized and unsafe in the scientific community.


Collaborating with Geoff Marcy, in any form, is not ok. Requesting or requiring that students to talk to him (or anyone they are uncomfortable talking to) is not ok. I would never ask someone working with me to do this. 


I include this information here not to defend my decision to remain on the papers, but to let people interested in working with me know that I would never put them in a situation where they had to decide between getting credit for their work and putting their name on a paper next to an abuser.