Sophia Sosa is a final-year Ph.D. student at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. Known as “Miss Perpetual Motion” by her advisor due to her tendency to always be on the go, she combines her research in radio astronomy with her passion for education, accessibility, and American Sign Language. She completed her undergraduate studies in Argentina, where she learned about astrophysics, the importance of teaching, and (to a questionable degree of success) Spanish. Her master’s project involved refurbishing a 100-foot-long radio antenna.

Currently pursuing her Ph.D., Sophia is a part of the NANOGrav collaboration, working to improve the sensitivity of our observations of dead stars known as “pulsars.” These stars can be used as galactic-sized detectors of gravitational waves, which could help us learn about the most massive black holes in the Universe and the Big Bang itself. Additionally, as part of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, she is developing new methods of teaching science through American Sign Language, aiming to bridge the gap between the Deaf community and higher education. She discovered that physics and math are particularly challenging for Deaf students due to a lack of appropriate signs and is now working on new ways to convey accurate information.

Her goal is to defend her Ph.D. thesis next year and pursue a career as a professor, continuing her dream of integrating science, teaching, and accessibility. When she’s not volunteering at the local science museum, you can find her ballroom dancing, making clothes, or setting off fire alarms while trying new recipes.