Rachel Nere

I am Rachel Nere, an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). I major in physics, minor in english, and have a certificate in quantum information. I come from a humble first-generation American family, and as a first-generation college student, I aim to be the first in my family to achieve a doctoral degree and make an impact on my community by being a successful researcher, educator, and mentor. Some of my experiences include,  being an intern at the Boeing Company as an electromagnetic effects engineer. being an intern at the Harvard & Smithsonian | Center for Astrophysics to study RV Tauri Variable Stars and I worked with Dr. Rodolfo Montez Jr. to properly classify these stars. I have also done research at UMass Boston as a McNair Scholar, under Professor Mohamed Gharbi in his biophysics / soft matter lab to fabricate liquid crystal foam and simulate 3D geometrical structures. Lastly, I did research as a TAURUS Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. I worked with Dr. Arianna Long and tested James Webb Space Telescope observations to differentiate quiescent galaxies in the early cosmos.