Although he now lives in Texas, George Clark is a New Englander and calls Wakefield, New Hampshire, his hometown. During a two-year interval between finishing high school and entering the University of New Hampshire, George took an introductory astronomy class at Granite State College taught by John Gianforte. “His class was amazing,” George says. “He took us to the UNH observatory multiple times (where he volunteered) and showed us distant galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and the planets. John played a crucial role in my decision to apply to UNH for physics.”
George has many professional and personal plans for his future. They include becoming a professor at a research university where he could “play” in the lab and design particle instruments for space-based missions to study planetary magnetospheres. He would also like to give back to the community by teaching physics. As for a personal life, he says, “Have a family with my wife Chelsea. Get my pilot’s license. Start a bakery shop someday. Travel the world with my backpack and a good pair of shoes. Learn to play the piano. Sleep is definitely overrated.”
Morgan O’Neill grew up outside Seattle, Washington, but attended high school in Monson, Massachusetts. Her long-range plans after graduate school are to become a professor at a research university, but she is also really interested in public science education of science. “In the short term,” she said, “I would like to reach out to different groups in Boston and clear up misconceptions of climate change, with a more long-term goal of helping shape a national dialogue on climate change that is based on science and not myth or politics.”
Morgan credits her parents with playing “a huge role” in her decision to become a scientist. “I watched Star Trek regularly before I could even read,” she says, “and during the summer in elementary school, my dad would host ‘super summer science sisters’ for me and my sisters. We would make up small, fun experiments and build things like solar ovens.”
Read George Clark and Morgan O’Neill’s commentary Grounded, in High Orbit: Undergraduate Space Research at the University of New Hampshire >>
