Phoebe Heretz is an astrophysicist-in-training pursuing her PhD in Astronomy at UMass Amherst. She is a returning student who completed her additional undergraduate studies in Physics and Astronomy from SUNY New Paltz in May 2024. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, which provides 3 years of funding for her to pursue research about how galaxies evolve over the age of the Universe. She is a researcher affiliated with the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and with a global team of protoplanetary disk researchers called JDISCS. Phoebe is a passionate science communicator who has led dozens of observatory nights and planetarium shows at SUNY New Paltz, and much more! Her first degree is in songwriting, and she still participates in the local music scene.