Rica Sirbaugh French #IDIC ᐰ

Thank you! 😁

Lol, thanks!

(Yeah, there really isn't an actual distinction between astronomer & astrophysicist any more [decades ago, somewhat yes]. Any distinction these days is usually about the title of your degree and/or position.)

Two brown dogs sitting and looking at the camera, the left one with medium length foofy hair and beard, the right one with short, smooth hair. They both sport bandanas with embroidered NASA meatball logos. On the floor in front of them are three NASA-branded toys: a bone with rubber tug handle, an astronaut, and a rocket with knotted tug rope.

My little #NASA space cadets. 👨‍🚀🚀🐶🐕😂 #puppies #dogs

Are you at @creationent.bsky.social's #STLV? Join us for "Women of STEM & Sci-Fi: Meet the Astrophysicists" with me, @jesstella.bsky.social, & Olivia Greene of @neuroverse-tni.bsky.social!

Banner image for Creation Entertainment's STLV Trek to Vegas, August 6-10, 2025, at the Rio Las Vegas.

🖖🏼🖖🏼🖖🏼WE'RE ON THE MAIN STAGE WEDNESDAY AT 11:45! 😱😱😱

(In the Leonard Nimoy Theatre!)
((Right after the #StarTrekTOS guest stars & just before the #StarTrekDiscovery recurring stars!!)

www.creationent.com/cal/cemissio...

🏳️‍🌈🧪⚛🔭USA's 1st woman in space #SallyRide was an inspiration, enduring blatant misogyny & shattering a glass ceiling while hiding a secret: her #LGBTQ+ status. Join @astrosociety.org's livestream Mon, 30 JUN, 17:15 PDT #NatGeo docufilm SALLY + Q&A w/former #NASA #astronaut #CadyColeman.
tiny.cc/SALLY

@neuroverse-tni.bsky.social

Two brown dogs wearing Pride bandanas, sitting posed for a photo against a rainbow background and "Love is Love 🩶" banner. 🏳️‍🌈

Stormy & Greyson 🥰🐶😂

#Repost @encinitas_petshotel with @let.repost
• • • • • •
Love Unleashed 🏳️‍🌈 #PrideMonth #daycampparties #lifeatpetsmart #anythingforpets #0144

Does Taylor Swift Hold the Key to the Destiny of the Universe? And learn how whisky may signal the discovery of an extraterrestrial civilization (hic).

🧵4/4 "Does Taylor Swift Hold the Key to the Destiny of the #Universe?"

by @discovermag.bsky.social

www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences...

The Eras Tour: Mapping the Eras of Taylor Swift to the Cosmological Eras of the Universe This paper explores an unexpected yet compelling parallel between the evolution of the universe, as described by cosmological eras, and the artistic evolution of Taylor Swift, delineated by her distin...

🧵3/4 "The #ErasTour: Mapping the Eras of Taylor Swift to the Cosmological Eras of the Universe"

by #JaneBright

arxiv.org/abs/2503.22795

A Swift analysis of the Eras tour set list and implications for astrophysics research (Taylor's version) Popular culture plays a significant role in shaping public interest in science, and Taylor Swift's discography frequently incorporates astrophysics terminology. This study examines the occurrence of a...

🧵2/4 "A Swift analysis of the #ErasTour set list & implications for #astrophysics research (Taylor's version)"

by #SophieNewman & #AnaSainzdeMurieta

arxiv.org/abs/2503.24188

🧵1/4 Am late to the party but apparently #TaylorSwift is having a direct impact on #astronomy #astrophysics #cosmology. Hilarious & surprisingly interesting. There's a #PopCulture #SciComm talk here. Hmm, how to work it in to #STLV... 🤔😂

Thoughts #Swifties??? @amyimhoff1701.bsky.social

Love it! Where might I get one? I think I'll wear it on stage during one of our panels this year in Vegas.

Oh how awful! So very sorry! Deepest sympathies. 💔🕊🤍

****This also likely explains that night's presentation by Danielle Martino and I entitled, "Doppler Shift, Buzzed" after which Kevin begrudgingly made us take out the most interesting parts because he said his dean wouldn't appreciate it the way he did.

has the monopoly on this one.

**I write that fully acknowledging that Kevin -- and likely some of you reading this -- have long desired a "dealing with Rica" playbook.

***Ed's words, not mine, though I admit to co-opting them occasionally.

profoundly sad that he won't get to enjoy the retirement he was looking forward to. If anyone deserved that, it was he. I am privileged to have known him, worked with him, learned from him. My heart breaks for his family.

Kevin Michael Lee, 09 April 1963 - 14 April 2025

*Ed Prather undoubtedly

during which he convinced me that I was in fact qualified to review proposals and brought me aboard to do so.

I will miss my friend. I will miss working with him, arguing with him, killing hours in airports with him talking through our latest respective crises, whether real or perceived. I am

<https://astro.unl.edu>. He earned awards, including AAPT's Halliday and Resnick award <https://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/lee_2012hallidayresnick_pr20120404.cfm> and their Dodge Citation <https://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/pressreleases/Dodge_2016_Lee.cfm> and served as a program officer at NSF for a while

over on technology in the classroom, the innovative materials he, his longtime developer Chris Siedell, and their team at Nebraska produced are among the best in the world for animations, simulations, and other learner-centered interactives in astronomy, physics, and physical science

spent most of a week sharing how to improve teaching and learning in astronomy.

For the better part of three decades (at least), Kevin and his work influenced literally thousands of educators; easily hundreds of thousands of people if you count the students of those educators. An expert many times

He's smiling, laughing, and genuinely looks like he's having a good time. We did have a good time. Admittedly, it's kind of hard not to in a bar where tag-team indoor adult tricycle racing is a regular occurrence, particularly since it was filled to the gills with astronomy educators who had just

wallet, which was in his back pocket, and he'd always wondered if he could do it. Danny and I shamelessly encouraged him to try. So he did. And it worked.

These photos of Kevin on an adult-sized tricycle in a bar in Boulder, Colorado, are possibly my favorite photographs of him ever.

the lab door with Kevin musing aloud whether it was possible to unlock the lab by jumping and rotating midair such that one's butt swiped across the electromagnetic lock at precisely the right time and angle. We were puzzled (and a little scared) until he explained that the key card was in his

time but I especially noticed it when we were at the Monument."

Another time, at a retreat he hosted at UNL, we returned to work in a computer lab one evening after a dinner that involved copious adult beverages****. I recall some vague talk about superheroes and then we were standing in front of

hole in one of my gloves using it as a handbrake, did Kevin choose that moment to very calmly inform us that he couldn't actually feel his hands. When asked "For how long?!" he held out hands that were alarming patchworks of angry red and greyish white and casually replied, "Pretty much the whole

were going to have to take him to the emergency room for frostbite. This, after a post-workshop whirlwind evening of sightseeing in sub-zero temps, biting cold wind, and Kevin without gloves. Only after sliding down the Metro escalator rails like obnoxious teenagers and laughing that I'd burned a

because of it; our friendships were stronger as a result.

I suppose it's also true that Kevin had a hard time letting his hair down. But we were determined to break him. And we did. Many times. Seriously. One time in DC (when it was "freeze your balls off cold"***) Danielle Martino and I thought we

of us having learned something, whether it was physics long forgotten by all but Kevin, new [potentially unhealthy] coping mechanisms*, or another entry for the "working with Kevin" playbook**. Yeah, it was sometimes pretty stressful but our work was better for it; we understood each other better

intense arguments (omfg, did we all argue). But we always knew that his motivations came with the best intentions: Kevin was so fiercely passionate about helping people learn, about producing the most useful tools, about making it real. Details mattered. We'd argue, break, regroup, and refocus, each