Xavier Lesley

Happy birthday Ashley 🎉

As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

1/🧵

Ohio State just advised all staff and students not to attend the SACNAS (Society for the advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) annual meeting of 6000+ scientists -- which is in Columbus, OH this year! -- saying it may be exclusionary, even though it is open to all.

I didn't come across that Earth, Wind & Fire meme this year, and that's how you know everything's in shambles.

Transgender in Astronomy: Interview with Wichahpi King For Pride Month, Astrobites is interviewing one transgender astronomer every week. This week we interviewed Wichahpi King, a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin!

From Kaz Gary: For Pride Month, Astrobites is interviewing one transgender astronomer every week. This week we interviewed Wichahpi King, a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin! 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/06/20/w...

Transgender in Astronomy: Interview with Joy Bhattacharya For Pride Month, Astrobites is interviewing one transgender astronomer every week. This week we interviewed Joy Bhattacharya, a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University!

From Kaz Gary: For Pride Month, Astrobites is interviewing one transgender astronomer every week. This week we interviewed Joy Bhattacharya, a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University! 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/06/13/j...

In honor of Pride Month, please go and read this amazing series of interviews by my friend Kaz!

The NASA office of technology, policy and strategy as well as the office of the chief scientist are both being shut down, and its overall science budget may be slashed by as much as 50%.

It's been a big week for character development.

I had to read this twice to make sure my eyes didn't deceive me 😮‍💨

Letter reading, "Dear agency employees, We are taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions. These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination. We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days. There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Janet Petro"

Here's an e-mail that just went out to NASA agency wide. 🔭

An eggnog pie, decorated with spices on top.

For the eggnog lovers: a crudely constructed eggnog pie for the holidays!

An M dwarf star with the text: "I am not a toy. I am not a Christmas present. I am a 10 trillion year commitment"

Think twice before gifting someone an M dwarf this holiday season

I had the great pleasure of meeting her in early 2020 - what a true inspiration she is!

Astronomy project co-led by Ohio State receives $4.3 million Researchers at The Ohio State University are helping lead the development of an instrument that will transform how astronomers hunt for exoplanets. Designed to detect the presence of distant worlds by...

Well - now I've officially moved over to here, a couple of things! Firstly - an overdue update: news.osu.edu/astronomy-pr.... And secondly - come work on iLocater: ilocater.nd.edu/news/ilocate.... Applications strongly encouraged by Dec 6!

It's been one week since this meeting ended. I missed last year's, so it was a great pleasure to attend this one. There were many fun moments with many good people - I'm already missing them! 🥹

Guess I should make an intro post!

I'm an astronomy grad student at The Ohio State University and I'm interested in stellar evolution as well as exoplanet formation. I enjoy baking 👨🏽‍🍳, music 🎵, and nature 🌄. I also care about enhancing the experiences of minorities in STEM. Kindness goes a long way.

Picture of OSU astronomy and physics department members past and present at the national conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and National Society of Hispanic Physicists last week in Houston, TX!

OSU astronomy and physics representing at the NSBP/NSHP annual conference last week! 🔭🧪

It's PAPER DAY 📣 My first first-author paper is now published in ApJ 🎉
Read about how star clusters contribute as galactic cosmic ray sources. Comments and questions are welcome 🤗
Gamma-Ray Emission from the Star-forming Region RCW 38

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

Astronomy and Astrophysics Outlist Outlist and ally list for LGBTQIA+ members in the astronomy and astrophysics community

(Just realized that I haven't advertized the Astronomy and Astrophysics Outlist on this platform.)

If you are an LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈 astronomers/astrophysicists (or an ally) and are comfortable of being out, you can join the Astro Outlist to help increase LGBTQ+ visibility and connect with local community!

Think I've had this account for 9 months now, but going to try to start posting. Inspired by @ohdearz.bsky.social !

Poll data from October showed this disaggregation of Latino voters by heritage (from www.as-coa.org/articles/pol...). We are not a monolith & have different experiences, but there's also a lot of anti-Blackness across the groups.