Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Virgo, 2022 (detail). Installation view: Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2025. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Graduate Student Talk: Megan Masterson
April 24, 2025
Join Megan Masterson, a PhD candidate in Physics at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research for a conversation around Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning.
In this talk, Megan will connect many of the themes that permeate Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning, including temporality, intensity, and alignment, to the mysteries of the cosmos. She will specifically discuss how these themes persist in her own research on the growth of supermassive black holes, where the intense gravity distorts our view and influences our perception.
This will be a hybrid event with a live video that can be streamed here at 5:30 PM.
About the Speaker
Megan Masterson is a Physics PhD candidate at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, where she works on some of the most extreme objects in the universe — supermassive black holes. Megan’s work focuses on understanding how these black holes grow; she uses both ground- and space-based telescopes spanning multiple different wavelengths of light to map how material accretes onto these cosmic beasts. Megan is involved in many astronomy outreach initiatives, including Astrobites, Astronomy on Tap, and MIT Astrogazers, through which she shares her passion for science communication and the wonders of the cosmos.
Graduate Student Talks
MIT graduate students explore current exhibitions at the List Center through the lens of their own research, background, and interests. Join us for this interdisciplinary lecture series where we dive into how art and research are overlapping on MIT’s campus.
