Mallory Molina

Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University | I study black holes and black hole feedback

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

This win is bigger than a gubernatorial race. This win is for all of us who remember. This race reminds us we do not have to be silent. We matter. We are important. And we can remember, and still move forward and accomplish great things.

Felicidades Governor Hinojosa

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

I grew up in Texas. I remember being called spic and being put in remedial classes/ESL because of my last name. I remember PARENTS telling me & my sister to deport my parents as illegals. I remember all of my accomplishments being reduced to that "H" on the demographics section.

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

I remember feeling like I would never be worthy or earn anything on merit. I remember my parents telling me to be quiet, to not rock the boat. Stay quiet, stay safe.

Today Texas elected a Mexican American woman as governor. Today they stood for goodness and fairness.

[Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science @vuartsci]

Physics and astronomy graduate student Brayan Hernandez was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Hernandez will be conducting observational research to detect massive black holes residing within dwarf galaxies.

[Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science @vuartsci]

Physics and astronomy graduate student Azeem Bari was recently awarded a $150,000 @NASA FINESST grant to fund three years of research, exploring how black holes and galaxies co-evolve—a key to understanding our cosmic origins.

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

So excited to announce my other grad student Azeem Bari (not on twitter yet) won a FINESST fellowship! I'm 2/2 for grad fellowships this year, great way to end my first year as a prof 😊

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

So proud of my student Brayan Hernandez for being awarded an NSF graduate research fellowship! ☺️

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

Somehow I've been teaching a solar system class all fall and I just remembered that Sufjan Steven's planetarium album exists

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@AdiFoord I've had this exact thing happen to me multiple times 🫠

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@AkAstronomy Honestly same haha

[Vanderbilt University @VanderbiltU]

Meet Mallory Molina (@malmolina_14) of @vuartsci!

Academic focus: black holes and star formation in massive and dwarf galaxies

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@mad__dr I know; we were debating having a second kid and we realized my partner would need to get a new job and we might have to re-home one of our dogs to afford everything, and it felt like too much. So we decided not to. It's really depressing

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

I just paid my sept. daycare bill. I love my daycare and was happy that I only had to pay $1400. Then I realized how sad it was that $1400/mo for daycare is a relief. I'm so lucky that I just got a job where I can afford rent & daycare. I dunno how most ppl afford quality daycare

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@kayhangultekin @rareflwr41 @KarenLMasters @zastronomerski I'm so sad I'm just learning about this and so excited to use it all at the same time

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

When you're trying to be a good big sister but instead of getting love you're used as a table

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

First day in my office as Professor Molina! I'm still in shock that I got the job haha

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

It's a big day in our household. Possibly the biggest day ever.

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

Me: "I won't watch baseball it's too boring they just stand there."

Also me: *heavily invested in the mixed archery final in the Olympics where they literally just stand there and shoot at targets*

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@rareflwr41 @astro_nino That sounds great and will be really helpful for this cycle!

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@rareflwr41 I remember it being more lax in the past but recently (like a few years ago) I saw stuff about both NSF and FINESST cracking down harder on this point. Is that true/is there somewhere I can get more info on this for FINESST? 2/2

[Mallory Molina @malmolina_14]

@rareflwr41 One issue with FINESST (& GRFP) is that it's unclear how much of the project has to use NASA data (or ground-based). It's hard for grads to write both space- and ground-based proposals and it's not clear to me as their advisor if it's worth applying given these constraints. 1/2