Samantha Creech—and her trusty ukulele—brings people closer to the stars on stargazes in the mountains and at the Lookout Observatory. Samantha Creech, a UNC Asheville senior majoring in physics with astronomy and math minors, has been named the recipient of the Astronomy Club of Asheville-Carolyn Keefe Scholarship, which provides $2,000 to be applied to the cost of attending UNC Asheville for the academic year, and a one-year membership in the Astronomy Club of Asheville.
Creech was selected for the scholarship based on her academic record, recommendations, a personal essay, and extra-curricular activities, which includes participation in a highly competitive physics REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) and serving as a docent at UNC Asheville’s Lookout Observatory.
“Samantha is active in undergraduate research as well as one of our Lookout Observatory Docents,” said Judy Beck, senior lecturer in physics at UNC Asheville. “She is an outstanding student and is very engaged on campus.”
Creech fell in love with stargazing in high school, she said, and continued to explore that passion through her astronomy and physics studies at UNC Asheville.
“In a way physics brings a similar feeling that stargazing does,” Creech said. “You learn about the way the universe works, and it makes you feel very a part of it. It’s very awe-inspiring, and it’s very beautiful, too.”
Creech spent the summer of 2019 participating in a REU at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, where she worked the IceCube project.
“IceCube is a neutrino telescope in the South Pole. This telescope is made up of detectors lodged two kilometers deep in the ice, that instead of picking up light are meant to pick up neutrinos, which are some of the smallest and most elusive particles that exist in the universe,” Creech explained. “The hope is that once the detector improves its ability to detect high-energy neutrinos, we’ll be able to use those particles to study really high energy phenomena in the universe.”
High energy phenomena include black holes, supernovae, and neutron star mergers, Creech said. “Basically, all the big explosions.”
Creech is also a member of the student research team supporting the work of Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Britt Lundgren, who has been named a 2020 Cottrell Scholar for her research on how galaxies evolve over cosmic timescales.
“Samantha is an outstanding student and researcher,” Lundgren said. “She’s a truly remarkable student, who is also indispensable to many activities on campus, in particular, the operations at the Observatory and outdoor programming.”
As a Lookout Observatory docent, Creech operates telescopes and answers questions at public stargazing events. “Telescope duty is the most fun, because it’s the one where you’re actually interacting with people and answering questions, getting to break misconceptions and see how awed people are when they look through the telescopes,” Creech said.
Creech also helps share her fascination with the stars as a trip leader and office supervisor for UNC Asheville’s Outdoor Programs, where she brings campers and telescopes together for a special encounter with the night sky. “During any overnight trip, there’s bound to be a clear night where I point out constellations with my stargazing laser,” Creech said. She also leads stargazing night hikes. “It’s one of my favorite trips to lead; we all drink tea and hot chocolate while looking at the stars.”
Connecting people to the wonders of science will also be the focus of Creech’s upcoming internship as a science writer for Physics Today magazine.
“Physics Today takes academic papers and then translates them into readable language,” Creech said. It’s the kind of work Creech said she may pursue as a career once she graduates. “One of the things I like most about the idea of being a science writer is that I wouldn’t have to specialize in one very specific part of astronomy or physics; I love it all, and I’d just get to keep learning about all of it.”
Wherever her career takes her, Creech says she will continue her mission of bringing people closer to understanding the world around them—and above them—through physics.
“I want to show people how beautiful and awesome physics can be,” she said.
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