A Montana native and Flathead Valley Community College alumna is one of 20 speakers from around the world selected to give a TED Talk this April in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Dr. Sarah Rugheimer was selected as a TED Fellow based on her work developing a model for detecting signs of life in an exoplanet atmosphere.
Founded in 2009, The TED Fellows program creates a far-reaching network made up of scientist, doctors and more.
Dr. Rugheimer grew up in Montana and graduated from Flathead Valley Community College in 2003.
She went on to finish her undergraduate degree at the University of Calgary while earning her Masters and Ph.D from Harvard University.
Dr. Rugheimer is currently a Glasstone Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
She credits her time at FVCC for sparking a passion in her love for physics.
“FVCC really strikes out in my memory just because of the quality of education I got, some of the best teachers I’ve ever had were at FVCC and that’s including now having studied at the University of Calgary and Harvard," said Dr. Rugheimer. "My physics course was amazing at FVCC and really helped me sort of eventually choose to go into physics, so I definitely remember those days fondly.”
Dr. Rugheimer delivered the spring commencement address at Flathead Valley Community College in 2018.
She also co-hosts a podcast with fellow exoplanet astronomer Dr. Sarah Ballard called “Self-care with Dr. Sarah.”
