Anacapa Scholars: Laura Klein and Ben Montet
Thacher welcomes two Harvard PhD students.
All year long, the campus welcomes visiting scholars, artists in residence, and other guests who share their special expertise. Some become members of the campus community for extended periods of time, others are here only briefly to deliver lectures or meet with students.
Recently, we welcomed two PhD students from the east coast.
Visitors: Laura Klein, a PhD candidate in the department of Evolution and Human Biology, and Ben Montet, a PhD student in astrophysics.
Their current work:
Laura Klein is a PhD candidate at Harvard University in the department of Evolution and Human Biology. Her PhD thesis is on the developmental effects of breast milk, and she just completed her field work in Poland this past summer. Aside from her focused study, she has expertise and teaching experience in anatomy and physiology (including comparative anatomy and the human microbiome), evolutionary medicine, epidemiological transitions, changes in human diets, and science outreach.
Ben Montet is finishing his PhD in astrophysics from Caltech while in residence at Harvard University. His specialization is in precision photometry, observational surveys, orbital dynamics, exoplanets, and stellar astrophysics. He will have his PhD completed by summer and he has already secured himself the Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship—named after Carl Sagan—that he will be taking to the University of Chicago.
What they did on campus: Both Ben and Laura were extremely active in the Thacher community over the course of their weeklong visit. Ben visited many different classes, including freshman physics, multivariable calculus, the freshman astronomy seminar, the astronomy applications class, AP computer science, and intro to computer science. Ben participated in these classes and actually ended up teaching a freshman physics class, running a weeklong lesson on Bayesian statistics in the multivariable calculus class, and teaching numerical integration techniques to the AP computer science class. In addition, Ben ran a sky viewing up at the observatory where we explored several different star forming regions that are currently visible. These explorations led nicely into what I think was the highlight of Ben’s visit which was to run a short lecture and open discussion about the possible discovery of a legitimate ninth planet in our solar system.
Laura visited several biology classes, including AP biology, the biology X block class, and regular biology. In AP biology, Laura and Mr. Thieret co-led a college seminar-style discussion using a peer-reviewed journal article on honeybee navigation. The AP biology was just starting a lesson on evolution, so Laura also taught a class about artificial selection and animal domestication. In the regular biology sections Laura taught a forensic anthropology lab, where students learned how scientists can determine a person's age, sex, and health when they only have bones. Students got a chance to practice these techniques by looking at a real human skeleton. Laura hosted a half hour lecture on the human diet from an evolutionary viewpoint. Her focus point was the Paleo Diet, but many other facets of our knowledge about what humans have eaten in the past and what can be considered healthy eating were explored. Laura also went into the community during her visit and gave a Q&A about her PhD research on breast milk to new parents at the Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center in Oak View.
Their impressions of Thacher:
Our impressions of them:
Back
Recently, we welcomed two PhD students from the east coast.
Visitors: Laura Klein, a PhD candidate in the department of Evolution and Human Biology, and Ben Montet, a PhD student in astrophysics.
Their current work:
Laura Klein is a PhD candidate at Harvard University in the department of Evolution and Human Biology. Her PhD thesis is on the developmental effects of breast milk, and she just completed her field work in Poland this past summer. Aside from her focused study, she has expertise and teaching experience in anatomy and physiology (including comparative anatomy and the human microbiome), evolutionary medicine, epidemiological transitions, changes in human diets, and science outreach.
Ben Montet is finishing his PhD in astrophysics from Caltech while in residence at Harvard University. His specialization is in precision photometry, observational surveys, orbital dynamics, exoplanets, and stellar astrophysics. He will have his PhD completed by summer and he has already secured himself the Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship—named after Carl Sagan—that he will be taking to the University of Chicago.
What they did on campus: Both Ben and Laura were extremely active in the Thacher community over the course of their weeklong visit. Ben visited many different classes, including freshman physics, multivariable calculus, the freshman astronomy seminar, the astronomy applications class, AP computer science, and intro to computer science. Ben participated in these classes and actually ended up teaching a freshman physics class, running a weeklong lesson on Bayesian statistics in the multivariable calculus class, and teaching numerical integration techniques to the AP computer science class. In addition, Ben ran a sky viewing up at the observatory where we explored several different star forming regions that are currently visible. These explorations led nicely into what I think was the highlight of Ben’s visit which was to run a short lecture and open discussion about the possible discovery of a legitimate ninth planet in our solar system.
Laura visited several biology classes, including AP biology, the biology X block class, and regular biology. In AP biology, Laura and Mr. Thieret co-led a college seminar-style discussion using a peer-reviewed journal article on honeybee navigation. The AP biology was just starting a lesson on evolution, so Laura also taught a class about artificial selection and animal domestication. In the regular biology sections Laura taught a forensic anthropology lab, where students learned how scientists can determine a person's age, sex, and health when they only have bones. Students got a chance to practice these techniques by looking at a real human skeleton. Laura hosted a half hour lecture on the human diet from an evolutionary viewpoint. Her focus point was the Paleo Diet, but many other facets of our knowledge about what humans have eaten in the past and what can be considered healthy eating were explored. Laura also went into the community during her visit and gave a Q&A about her PhD research on breast milk to new parents at the Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center in Oak View.
Their impressions of Thacher:
I really enjoyed my time interacting with the students and faculty the entire week. Both in class and outside, it was great to see everyone so engaged in the Thacher community; I'm excited to visit again in the future to learn more from everyone at the school.—Ben Montet
It was very inspiring to see students so enthused about their classes and work. The entire time, everyone was so welcoming! We immediately felt at home on the Thacher campus thanks to the openness and warm spirit of the whole community.—Laura Klein
Our impressions of them:
I had the good fortune of working with Ben Montet while he was here on campus, and it was not only a lot of fun but also extremely rewarding. He worked with Dr. Swift and me on our research, giving the two of us suggestions on how to approach some roadblocks we've encountered. Essentially, he taught us a really cool way to fit data using a high level computational technique. It was super cool to work with a real astronomer (besides Dr. Swift), and I got to experience the core of science firsthand: collaboration.
He was a blast to work with, as he was exceedingly cheerful and quite hilarious, in addition to being a straight up genius. He was generous with his time, and as a result I worked with him one-on-one for several hours throughout the week. In addition to working on our research, he also stopped by my multivariable calculus class and my robotics class with Mr. Meyer, where Mr. Montet helped me teach Mr. Meyer what he had taught me earlier in the week. In short, knowledge and good times were shared.—Doug Klink '16
Ms. Klein was amazing and very helpful in bettering my understanding of biological processes. I especially enjoyed our formal dinner talk on the human microbiome, and her research into it.—Chris Gilbert '18
Ms. Klein was amazing and very helpful in bettering my understanding of biological processes. I especially enjoyed our formal dinner talk on the human microbiome, and her research into it.—Chris Gilbert '18
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