SAM BEREK

• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2018

• University of Toronto, Ph.D. Astronomy and Astrophysics, '25

• Yale University, B.S. Astrophysics and Anthropology, '20

• Host Institution: Bryce Space and Technology

• Mentor: Rebecca Spyke Keiser

Sam is a PhD candidate in the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. Her research is in the field of astrostatistics, and she studies the co-evolution of the smallest galaxies and their star clusters across cosmic time using innovative statistical methods. Sam received her B.S. in astrophysics and anthropology from Yale University in 2020.

In graduate school, Sam has discovered a love for teaching, and has been fostering that alongside her research interests. She is teaching an undergraduate course meant to introduce astronomy to non-majors by focusing on how scientific theories are proposed, rejected, and accepted by the scientific community. She also participates in multiple outreach and mentoring programs, primarily with undergraduates. She has been a co-president of the Graduate Astronomy Student’s Union, and served on the Department Training and Mentoring Committee.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Sam spent her summer at Bryce Space and Technology conducting an analysis for NASA’s Center Innovation Fund (CIF). She contributed to two papers resulting from the analysis, which sought to discover early indicators of success and accurate measures of innovation for early stage technology projects funded by CIF.

Outside of work, Sam enjoys cooking, baking, and reading. She spends a lot of time tending to her many houseplants, and is attempting (with limited success) to grow a vegetable garden.