About Me

My name is Briley Lewis, and I'm a NSF fellow and 5th year graduate student (now, PhD candidate!) at the University of California, Los Angeles studying Astronomy & Astrophysics. I grew up in Southern California, and am the first in my family to go for a PhD. ​

I graduated from Columbia University with my B.A. in Astrophysics (Class of 2018), just earned my M.S. in Astronomy & Astrophysics at UCLA, and am now working on my Ph.D. I have previously worked at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and also at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. I'm interested primarily in exoplanets and the solar system. See my research page for more about these projects, or my full CV!

Outside of research, I am passionate about teaching and science communication. I have been a teaching assistant for multiple classes at UCLA, and am working on my Graduate Certificate in Writing Pedagogy while teaching for the interdisciplinary UCLA Freshman Cluster program. I've also been a writer with Astrobites for two years now, and have written for Scientific American, Popular Science, Space.com, and more as a freelancer.

I spend my free time bringing together my love of science with my love of crafting — see more on my creative page! The rest of my time is devoted to my sweet senior rescue dog, Rocky. You can also find me on Twitter @briles_34!