Alumni Spotlight

This month’s Alumni Spotlight shines on Elizabeth Neights, a 2017 graduate whose childhood fascination with the sciences and the night sky has led her to an extraordinary career. Today, she is a leading researcher at NASA, where she is at the forefront of groundbreaking studies on gamma-ray bursts.

Eliza joined the Methacton School District in first grade at Audubon Elementary. Even at a very early age, she showed an impressive aptitude for the sciences, particularly astronomy. A fun memory from her elementary years was choosing to interview a Mars researcher at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum for a school project.

"I have always enjoyed trying to understand the world around me, and have been interested in physics and astronomy for as long as I can remember."

Eliza fondly remembers her field trips to the Arcola Mallon Planetarium:

"I loved visiting the Planetarium on field trips during elementary school, and I remember wishing we could go more often," she says. "I’m sure those experiences played a significant role in sparking my interest in astrophysics."

Eliza points to her Arcola gifted teacher, Ms. McGinnis, as a key mentor during her middle school years:

"She encouraged self-guided learning of topics that were of interest to her students, and instilled in us an intrinsic love of learning. This has motivated me to pursue subjects that I’m curious about."

Throughout high school, Eliza gravitated toward rigorous math and science coursework, with a specific focus on biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus. Outside of the classroom, she was a dedicated musician. Having started the harp at age five, she played with the school orchestra consistently from fifth grade through her senior year.

After graduating from high school, her path was clear. Eliza attended Penn State, where she pursued a double major in physics and astronomy.

While she was still in college, she started doing "real-world" science research. She studied how dense remnants of stars collide, which creates ripples in space called gravitational waves. She also looked for light and tiny particles that come from giant space explosions called gamma-ray bursts.

"I especially enjoyed topics that defy our intuitive understanding of the universe, like relativity and quantum mechanics."

Beyond just studying space, she also used her science skills to help keep the world safe. She worked on building special equipment that can detect tiny, invisible particles called anti-neutrinos to help monitor whether countries are developing nuclear weapons.

When Eliza began her PhD program at George Washington University, she sought to continue her research in astrophysics. An opportunity arose when a professor reached out to her, looking for a student to work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on a mission involving the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)—a new gamma-ray space telescope scheduled for launch in the summer of 2027. Eliza "jumped on this opportunity," and she is now completing her PhD thesis research through a collaboration between her professor and a research astrophysicist at NASA.

Eliza studies the most powerful explosions in the universe, which are known as gamma-ray bursts. Most of these bursts happen when a giant star runs out of fuel, reaches the end of its life, and collapses down into a black hole. To give you an idea of how big these bursts are: in just a few seconds, these explosions let out as much energy as our Sun produces in its entire 4.5 billion-year lifetime! By studying these explosions, Eliza helps us learn the secrets of how stars live, change, and finally fade away.

Eliza’s current work focuses on preparing for the upcoming COSI space telescope launch. She writes specialized software to analyze the telescope's data and predict how it will detect gamma-ray bursts once it launches. Additionally, she is part of a team that monitors the current Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor. She performs "rapid analysis" on the telescope's findings, interpreting new data and sending out alerts to the global scientific community whenever a new burst is detected.

"While I was on a shift last year, the instrument detected the longest gamma-ray burst EVER seen, which has a duration too long to be explained by any of the known origins of gamma-ray bursts. I led a paper on this extraordinary event, in which we find that the burst is explained naturally by a black hole falling into a star."

Eliza offers a very grounded piece of advice for current Methacton students:

"Find balance in your life; work hard, but also make time to enjoy yourself. Don’t take life too seriously, and embrace imperfection along the way."

Outside of her research, Eliza leads an eclectic and active lifestyle. She is an avid boulderer and a dancer who practices Brazilian Zouk. She also continues to play the harp and prioritizes quality time with her friends. When she is at home, she spends much of her time caring for her extensive collection of houseplants.

If you are -- or know -- a Methacton graduate who should be featured in the ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT, complete the interest form here.

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