Karen Perez
Research Interests
Karen Perez is a 6th-year graduate student in the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University. She received her B.A in Astrophysics at Cornell University in 2019, and is a 2015 recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which has supported both her undergraduate and graduate studies.
Her research focuses on long-term, multi-wavelength monitoring (X-ray, UV, optical, and radio) of redbacks and transitional millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in the Galactic field, aimed at understanding the evolutionary lifecycle of pulsars. Using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), she has been awarded over 30 hours of observation time to search for and confirm redback pulsar candidates in Fermi gamma-ray sources. One of these discoveries, PSR J0212+5321 (see Perez et al. 2022), is currently under study as she works on obtaining a phase-connected ephemeris.
In addition, Karen is involved in the search for technosignatures and pulsars in the Galactic Center (GC) using data from Breakthrough Listen (see Gajjar, Perez, et al. 2021). Using the GBT at X-band, this project is the most sensitive and comprehensive search for pulsars ever conducted in the region. She utilizes supercomputers to process the vast datasets required for accelerated pulsar searches, targeting pulsars orbiting the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, which could have wide implications for black hole physics, electrons density model constraints, and probing General Relativity.
As a Breakthrough Listen intern in 2019 at UC-Berkeley, Karen has continued working with the team on various technosignature projects, such as the GC Survey with the GBT and Sardinia Radio telescopes, and the Galactic Plane Survey with the Parkes Radio Telescope. She has conducted and monitored over 250 hours on the GBT, and co-mentored six undergraduates and Master's student interns, both in Italy and the U.S.
In her free time, she enjoys indoor bouldering and salsa dancing.
Advisors
Activities
In college, Karen actively participated in the Cornell Astronomical Society as both President and Outreach Coordinator, where she hosted observatory stargazing nights at Fuertes Observatory and organized STEM days at rural schools in underserved areas.
As a graduate student, Karen has organized and mentored in the department's undegraduate-graduate student mentoring program and led graduate school application panels for Breakthrough Listen (BL) REU interns. She also serves as a BL REU application reader. Additionally, she has represented the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GSAS) as a member of Columbia's University Ph.D. Council, served as the Astronomy Department representative on the GSAS Graduate Council, and acted as the graduate student representative in faculty department meetings. Beyond academia, Karen also volunteers at detention centers in NYC, educating Hispanic women about astronomy and space missions, string to make science more inclusive.