Erica Sawczynec
@ericasawczynec.bsky.social
University of Texas at Austin PhD candidate 🤘🏻| star & instrument (IGRINS) enthusiast ⭐️ 🔭| writer for Astrobites 🪐 | Maui, HI | she/hers
igrinscontact.github.io
igrinscontact.github.io
Pinned
10 Years of Archival High-Resolution NIR Spectra: The Raw and Reduced IGRINS Spectral Archive (RRISA)
The Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) is a compact, high-resolution (R~45,000) near-infrared spectrograph spanning 1.45 to 2.45 um in a single exposure. We introduce the Raw and Reduced...
arxiv.org
today my first first author paper came out on arxiv (arxiv.org/abs/2503.05867)! this archive was a labor of love and there are still more updates to come in 2025 🤩 if you need high resolution archival NIR spectra check out RRISA for IGRINS :-) #astro #stellarastro
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Hey y'all. I'm hiring. Are you interested in building instruments for astrophysics?
wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...
wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...
Research Scientist/Engineer 2 (E S UAW Research)
Job Description The University of Washington (UW) Astronomy Department has an outstanding opportunity for a researcher who will have responsibilities in the design, development, construction, and test...
wd5.myworkdaysite.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Hey y'all. I'm hiring. Are you interested in building instruments for astrophysics?
wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...
wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.
Rice students expose ICE raids with new interactive map
It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.
bit.ly
January 29, 2026 at 11:30 AM
It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.
if stellar continuum has 0 haters, I am dead
January 15, 2026 at 8:15 PM
if stellar continuum has 0 haters, I am dead
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
GoFundMe is allowing a fundraising campaign tied to the potential legal defense of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good, to remain online despite what appears to be a breach of the platform’s own terms of service, prompting questions about selective enforcement.
GoFundMe Ignores Own Rules by Hosting a Legal-Defense Fund for the ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good
The fundraiser for the ICE agent in the Renee Good killing has stayed online in seeming breach of GoFundMe’s own terms of service, prompting questions about selective enforcement.
www.wired.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:10 PM
GoFundMe is allowing a fundraising campaign tied to the potential legal defense of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good, to remain online despite what appears to be a breach of the platform’s own terms of service, prompting questions about selective enforcement.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
It's happening!!! Pandora is going to space in just over 16 hours (if all goes well). Pandora is going to help us study exoplanet atmospheres, even when their host stars are misbehaving. I am headed up to Vandenberg to watch the launch shortly, and will make a thread about the mission/launch here!
January 10, 2026 at 8:41 PM
It's happening!!! Pandora is going to space in just over 16 hours (if all goes well). Pandora is going to help us study exoplanet atmospheres, even when their host stars are misbehaving. I am headed up to Vandenberg to watch the launch shortly, and will make a thread about the mission/launch here!
nobody can tell me shit now that i have a blue rose in animal crossing. it took me four months of dedicated work to get this baby
December 22, 2025 at 5:31 AM
nobody can tell me shit now that i have a blue rose in animal crossing. it took me four months of dedicated work to get this baby
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Re-upping this today, citing the concluding paragraph we wrote as I just responded to a frustrating survey about integrating GenAI into humanities education at my institution.
December 2, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Re-upping this today, citing the concluding paragraph we wrote as I just responded to a frustrating survey about integrating GenAI into humanities education at my institution.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Abolishing ICE is only the beginning. Have you looked at your local cops?
..
According to mappingpoliceviolence.us, police kill at least three people per day; from a meta analysis published in NYT, we now know the number could be six or even more.
..
According to mappingpoliceviolence.us, police kill at least three people per day; from a meta analysis published in NYT, we now know the number could be six or even more.
November 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Abolishing ICE is only the beginning. Have you looked at your local cops?
..
According to mappingpoliceviolence.us, police kill at least three people per day; from a meta analysis published in NYT, we now know the number could be six or even more.
..
According to mappingpoliceviolence.us, police kill at least three people per day; from a meta analysis published in NYT, we now know the number could be six or even more.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
www.yahoo.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:23 PM
THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
November 13, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
update: it was a terrible last night of 4.5-5 arcsecond seeing i love feeling cold front weather but i hate observing as one rolls in
November 10, 2025 at 3:32 AM
update: it was a terrible last night of 4.5-5 arcsecond seeing i love feeling cold front weather but i hate observing as one rolls in
out observing targets for my thesis (and some running survey programs) with IGRINS. Had some great weather the past few nights and hoping for more! 🔭✨
November 9, 2025 at 12:57 AM
out observing targets for my thesis (and some running survey programs) with IGRINS. Had some great weather the past few nights and hoping for more! 🔭✨
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
WOW!
An incredible discovery. The first ever image of a baby exoplanet embedded in the dust rings from which planets are forming around a star. Confirms the developing view of planet formation that we’ve never before seen in action.
🧪🔭
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
An incredible discovery. The first ever image of a baby exoplanet embedded in the dust rings from which planets are forming around a star. Confirms the developing view of planet formation that we’ve never before seen in action.
🧪🔭
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
November 8, 2025 at 3:20 AM
WOW!
An incredible discovery. The first ever image of a baby exoplanet embedded in the dust rings from which planets are forming around a star. Confirms the developing view of planet formation that we’ve never before seen in action.
🧪🔭
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
An incredible discovery. The first ever image of a baby exoplanet embedded in the dust rings from which planets are forming around a star. Confirms the developing view of planet formation that we’ve never before seen in action.
🧪🔭
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
They're tearing Goddard apart for scraps and I'm supposed to write as many proposals as I can to scramble for a fraction of the money NASA has left? Depressing, degrading, and dehumanizing in a time when the future of planetary science can be measured in the number of people it leaves behind.
November 6, 2025 at 9:08 PM
They're tearing Goddard apart for scraps and I'm supposed to write as many proposals as I can to scramble for a fraction of the money NASA has left? Depressing, degrading, and dehumanizing in a time when the future of planetary science can be measured in the number of people it leaves behind.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.
Goddard spacecraft engineer: "I think it just kind of speaks to the atmosphere of the agency and the nation, where people are like, 'Well, laws don't matter for the people at the top anymore.'"
NASA is sinking its flagship science center during the government shutdown — and may be breaking the law in the process, critics say
"There is just a general acknowledgement that a lot of what is happening is illegal…"
www.space.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:43 PM
What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Chat… Are Black Holes Dark Energy??
In my new longer-than-usual piece for @astrobites.bsky.social, I do a deep dive into the background of the controversial 2023 paper which claimed black holes expand in step with the universe and can therefore explain dark energy. 🧪
astrobites.org/2025/10/30/a...
In my new longer-than-usual piece for @astrobites.bsky.social, I do a deep dive into the background of the controversial 2023 paper which claimed black holes expand in step with the universe and can therefore explain dark energy. 🧪
astrobites.org/2025/10/30/a...
October 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Chat… Are Black Holes Dark Energy??
In my new longer-than-usual piece for @astrobites.bsky.social, I do a deep dive into the background of the controversial 2023 paper which claimed black holes expand in step with the universe and can therefore explain dark energy. 🧪
astrobites.org/2025/10/30/a...
In my new longer-than-usual piece for @astrobites.bsky.social, I do a deep dive into the background of the controversial 2023 paper which claimed black holes expand in step with the universe and can therefore explain dark energy. 🧪
astrobites.org/2025/10/30/a...
daaaaaamn the bottom left figure of the spectrograph is super great!
Big congrats to Jennifer Burt, Xavier Dumusque, and Sam Halverson on finishing their epic (instant classic) Annual Reviews of Astronomy & Astrophysics article "Precise Radial Velocities"!
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01954
contains some great new graphics for talks on
#exoplanets #EPRV #DopplerSpectroscopy
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01954
contains some great new graphics for talks on
#exoplanets #EPRV #DopplerSpectroscopy
November 5, 2025 at 4:08 PM
daaaaaamn the bottom left figure of the spectrograph is super great!
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."
November 5, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
mamdani is human. he'll fuck up and fail, especially with a hostile press and the giant mess that is nyc's politics. but today is a great day for the brave women who told what cuomo did, and for those of us who care that it should matter. that power shouldn't go to those who hurt the poweless.
I'm happy that Mamdani won. But I won't let that get in the way of my celebrating Cuomo losing.
November 5, 2025 at 2:53 AM
mamdani is human. he'll fuck up and fail, especially with a hostile press and the giant mess that is nyc's politics. but today is a great day for the brave women who told what cuomo did, and for those of us who care that it should matter. that power shouldn't go to those who hurt the poweless.
Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Terrible scenes just minutes into the new socialist regime in New York as literally hundreds of billionaires discover mamdani already living rent free in their heads
November 5, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Terrible scenes just minutes into the new socialist regime in New York as literally hundreds of billionaires discover mamdani already living rent free in their heads