Graduate Students: Izaskun San Roman

Izaskun always had it very clear: she was going to be either a musician or an astrophysicist.

She liked astronomy, but wasn’t your typical amateur astronomer, who knows all the names of stars and constellations. What lured her in was the search for answers, to try to unveil the knowledge behind all those names. “And while you can always have a harp in your living room, a 10.4 meter telescope like the GTC is a bit harder to fit,” she explains.

Following this reasoning, she moved to the Canary Islands, home to one of the best Spanish schools for astrophysics; La Laguna University, a long way from her hometown in northern Spain.

After college, she got married and spent two years working as a high school teacher, while her husband finished his own studies. Then she resumed her studies and started to look for schools to get her PhD, and applied for a Spanish government grant to support science done with the new GTC, by forming new astronomers at the UF. She got accepted and both of them came to Florida.

During her first year here, she took a class with Professor Ata Sarajedini about stellar populations. “I loved this class. Also, an important thing about doing a PhD is getting along with your thesis director, and I found that Prof. Sarajedini had a very organized way to work and a lot of experience. I take my work very seriously, I almost get obsessed with it, it goes home with me and I never truly disconnect. So far, I think I made the right choice.” Izaskun recalls.

But what does it mean to study stellar populations? “What I do is try to understand how galaxies form. Galaxies usually have different morphologies; they may be elliptic, disc-shaped, spiral galaxies... We want to understand how the universe is capable of creating such different kinds of galaxies. This can be done from different angles, for example, studying the gas in the galaxy, or the stars in different parts of the galaxies, or some other factor in different parts of the galaxy. What I do is study stellar populations; that is, groups of stars. To study a single star is difficult, but when there is a group you find that they have some special characteristics, because they were born at the same time in similar conditions. For my thesis I use this kind of stellar populations, called “clusters,” in a nearby galaxy called M33. By studying these clusters, we can understand how the galaxy was formed. It is funny, because at the end of the day I can’t say that I am an expert in this galaxy; only in its clusters.” Izaskun explains.

Besides her thesis, she has also joined a group that works with the Hubble telescope. “It's paying work, but that also means working double.” According to Izaskun, there is a difference between how people get their PhD’s here and in her home country “I have the feeling that here the work done by students is considered more valuable. Being a student doesn’t mean that your work is worthless, just that you are learning.”

But hard work is not the only thing she does “I like the life in Gainesville. It’s a nice small city, with a good quality of life and a great University vibe. I do enjoy having a big American style house, pretty close to campus and downtown. If you want some more action, Orlando and Jacksonville are very close. The only thing I miss is walking everywhere, like in European cities.”

Now she is very close to graduation and can look at things in perspective. “My time here has been great. You might have some low times, but it will pay off, as it’s a very comforting and satisfactory work. Also, every day the department is getting more prestigious. We aspire to get into the top ten and a lot of effort is being made toward that goal, not only to give everyone an outstanding education, but also to make being an UF doctorate a guarantee of the high quality of your work.”