Dr. Christina Lacey is using the Very Large Array to observe the nearby galaxy NGC4449. She is comparing radio sources at 20 cm and 6 cm with optical data from a collaborator in Mexico using the Puma Fabry-Perot instrument on the 2.1 meter telescope at San Pedro Martir. She is looking for supernovae remnants and HII regions in the galaxy.

Christina has not always dreamed of being an astrophysicist. She began her college career in political science, an aspiring ambassador. By her sophomore year at the University of New Mexico, however, she had taken an introductory astronomy class and decided astrophysics was more her style. She went on to graduate from UNM with a Ph.D. in astrophysics. She is currently an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Her teaching responsibilities include, among others, classes in radio astronomy, honors astronomy, and that large introductory astronomy class where she may one day inspire another political science major to become an astrophysicist.