Charlotte Minsky

I study (exo)planets and history.

I'm an undergraduate at MIT studying planetary science and astronomy, computer science, and history. I am pursuing a research career in planetary science, and I'm particularly interested in exoplanets. I also care about teaching and outreach, diversity and inclusion in academia, and social justice. Sometimes I have free time, in which I listen to podcasts, play various musical instruments, hike, and craft.

Astronomy & Planetary Science

I am majoring in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences with a concentration in Planetary Science & Astronomy. I'm interested in planets and small bodies of all Solar Systems, but especially ones ⪆150 AUs away.

Current Roles

Undergraduate researcher with Prof. Julien de Wit (MIT) modeling exoplanet atmospheres
Target of Interest light curve vetter for the NASA/MIT TESS mission

Previous Experience

Observational astronomy project class determining the rotation period and axial ratio of asteroid (2713) Luxembourg
Undergraduate researcher with Prof. Ben Weiss and Dr. Mary Knapp looking for radio signatures from Planet 9 in archival data

History

I am also pursuing a joint major in History and Computer Science (not History of Computer Science, although that's also pretty cool). I am interested in 20th century Middle Eastern history and the intersections of race, science, and technology.

Contesting the Iranian Revolution

2018 - 2019

Edited and indexed Contesting the Iranian Revolution: The Green Uprisings, a book about the 2009 Green Uprisings in Iran by Pouya Alimagham to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2019

Conducted primary source research for related conference papers

MIT and Slavery

2017 - 2018

Researched MIT's relationship to the Southern Reconstruction economy from 1861-1887 as an individual reserch project within a pilot class investigating MIT's historical relationship with slavery and its legacies

Presented findings to MIT's president, a live and online audience totalling one thousand, and national press

Digital Humanities

Fall 2018

Project manager for the MIT Digital Humanities Lab, managing a team that analyzed gendered language in a digitized corpus of 19th-century English literature

Oversaw workflow, contributed code, and coordinated with data collection and visualization teams

Teaching & Other

I love teaching, outreach, and various community organizations I'm involved with! One thing I particularly care about is making the American criminal justice system less awful. Right now, the way I work on that is by increasing educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals near me.

Education for Incarcerated Individuals

Former TA for Introduction to Astronomy at MCI-Norfolk, a medium-security prison, through the Boston University Prison Education Program
Co-founder and president of the MIT Prison Education Initiative, increasing educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts and raising awareness within the MIT community about mass incarceration

Other Teaching Experience

Guest Lecturer in MIT classes 21H.261 Modern Iran: A Century of Revolution and 21H.160 Islam, the Middle East, and the West
Coach and residential counselor for A Voice of Her Own: Debate and Public Speaking Camp

Other Involvement on Campus

Undergraduate Association (Chief of Staff), the undergraduate student government
Queer West (President), an LGBTQ+ community and advocacy group
Addir (Fellow), an interfaith dialogue and bridge-building program
Discover Ocean Engineering (Mentor), a pre-orientation program for freshmen

CV & Contact

You can download a PDF of my CV here. Last updated 05/30/2019.

Email: cminsky@mit.edu

Social Media: LinkedIn (used rarely), Twitter (used frequently and often sarcastically), GitHub (it's social media if you try hard enough)