At present, Fong, 35, works at Northwestern College in Evanston, Illinois, the place she’s attempting to uncover different clues about transients — like whether or not neutron star mergers account for many GRBs and what the opposite sources of those flashes may be. She’s additionally investigating which components are produced within the collisions that create GRBs.
“For a very long time, individuals thought supernovae made all the heavy components in our universe, together with gold, platinum, and silver,” Fong says. “However now we truly assume that neutron star mergers would possibly account for a very good fraction of [them].”
Along with her scientific achievements, Fong is thought for her mentorship to college students and her work to make astronomy extra inclusive — notably for girls, who stay underrepresented.
“She’s extremely humble, good, inventive, and transformative,” says Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, a theoretical astrophysicist and Vera Rubin and Presidential Chair for Variety in Astronomy on the College of California, Santa Cruz. “Once I take into consideration people that we have to actually transfer the sphere ahead, I can not consider anybody higher.”
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