Photo credit: Arin Sang-urai
Moiya McTier
Moiya McTier is an astrophysicist and science communicator based in New York City, but if you had met her 15 years ago, you most likely wouldn’t have predicted that that’s where she’d end up. McTier grew up in rural Appalachia in a secluded log cabin without running water. After a childhood spent reading fantasy books, exploring the woods, and mentally solving algebra problems, McTier was lucky enough to be admitted to Harvard University. There, she studied both astrophysics and folklore & mythology – the first in the school’s long history to do so. Her senior thesis was a science fiction novel set on a planet she studied.
After graduating, McTier decided to pursue her PhD in astronomy at Columbia University. As a National Science Foundation Fellow, she studies the way that the Milky Way’s motion influences the formation of planets around the galaxy.
McTier has given well over 100 talks, performances and interviews about science for a wide range of audiences in the U.S. and abroad. She has taught children in rural Chile about solar eclipses, given an invited lecture at South Africa’s National Science Festival, helped design exhibits for the New York Hall of Science, and been interviewed on MSNBC, NPR, NowThis News and various other television programs and podcasts. She combines her astronomy and folklore backgrounds in her monthly show called ‘ExoLore’ at Caveat NYC.
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