National Science Foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Grandview Heights City grad aims for the stars and just might make it to Mars

Dr. Christine Corbett Moran is one of 50 finalists invited to interview for NASA’s 2017 astronaut candidate program. Those selected may make the long trip to Mars. That’s just one in a long list of out-of-this-world accomplishments for Moran, a 2002 graduate of Grandview Heights City’s Grandview Heights High School (GHHS). “(At GHHS,) I enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the first robotics team mentored by our chemistry and physics teacher, Sue Godez,” Moran said. “I remember one day fixing a bit of code the engineer mentoring the programming team couldn’t debug and doing a large part of the wiring when a team member was sick. “This experience was only a taste of working as an engineer but something I think fondly back to. I don’t think I appreciated the amount of work it takes to mentor a team like that at the time.” Now, Moran fully understands mentoring. She has become an in-demand public speaker, coder and theoretical astrophysicist and recently returned from working on the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica for 10 months. Her lengthy résumé includes working on propulsion at SpaceX; helping create the encrypted communication iOS app, Signal; and serving as technical lead on the Circle of 6 app and the former Encyclopedia app. Moran also has worked as a software engineer, research scientist, lecturer and professor at Raytheon BBN Technologies; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Lucent Technologies Inc.; Microsoft Corp. subsidiary Fast Search & Transfer; University of the Philippines Diliman; and Johns Hopkins University. She studied physics, computer science and engineering at MIT and earned a master’s degree in astrophysics and cosmology and a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Zurich. She returned to Caltech from a sabbatical as aNational Science Foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow. There, she performs research in computational astrophysics, high-performance computing and big data visualization. In her free time, Moran studies Chinese and kung fu and writes science fiction. But someday soon, she may be writing science nonfiction. According to NASA, she’ll find out in June if she was selected for the astronaut candidate program.

Educational Inspiration

“Steve Hall was my math teacher for many years,” Moran said. “He was an excellent teacher. At one point, he said to me, ‘You’re smarter than me, but I can still teach you.’ He tragically passed away at a young age, and he could definitely teach me. “Whether or not he was smarter than me, his quote stuck with me over the years as I’ve had the chance to mentor and teach amazing students at MIT and Caltech. Being a good teacher or student isn’t about being or proving that you’re smarter than someone else.”

Giving Back

“I travel around the world public speaking, and I always prioritize visits to Ohio because not only do I get to give back to my hometown, I also get to visit my family who is still based there,” Moran said. “Recently, I’ve given talks at (Whitehall City’s) Etna Elementary, and I will be returning to deliver the Grandview Heights High School commencement address and a talk at TEDxYearlingRoad (in Whitehall).”
Current as of 3/28/2024 10:13 am