Mary Gerhardinger
Bio:
Born in the waning hours of the last millenium, Mary Gerhardinger was perhaps fated to attend Kenyon – following in the footsteps of every other immediate family member. Her first serious encounter with gravity occurred as a toddler riding on the back of her father’s bike when he misjudged a small hill and toppled them backwards. Mary landed on her head, and her interest in physics began. She can be identified on campus as the only student who wears a helmet while riding a bike.
Her first semester at Kenyon led her to the Cosmo Group meetings; she started independent studies with Tom soon afterwards, joining the lab her sophomore year under the Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship. She has worked for the past two years investigating a possible solution to the Hubble Tension called Early Dark Energy. Recently, Mary has also been simulating a Galileon field in a non well-posed regime to show that what the Universe can do, physicists can also do. Additionally, she is incorporating fluids into General Relativity to simulate a more physically realistic universe. Aside from physics, she enjoys pondering the cosmos and everything in it through the lens of philosophy. When not in Hayes you may find her reading or hiking or perhaps somewhere else, depending on which reality you prescribe to.
