Kait Nash

Maddy Reich, senior physics major and astronomy and math double-minor, has always enjoyed math, but she did not discover her passion for astronomy and astrophysics until she began her journey at Trinity. In Reich’s opinion, astronomy is the most interesting application of physics, not to be confused with astrology, an assumption Reich often encounters.
“I did not want to be in astronomy when I was growing up. … That wasn’t me as a little kid being like, ‘I’m gonna reach the stars’ or whatever,” Reich said. “I just think I fell in love with physics before I did astronomy. Yeah, I was not heartbroken when I learned that Pluto wasn’t a planet. I was not like a die-hard astronomy child.”
While Reich is passionate about astronomy, that doesn’t necessarily translate to loving all things zodiac. Reich explained that astronomy is often conflated with astrology, but that specialization goes beyond measly star signs.
“Oh, you’d be surprised how much I get that. It’s so funny,” Reich said. “But over the summer, there was a big public outreach part of the internship that I did. And you’d be surprised how many people I’d be talking to at an open night, and they’d be like, ‘It’s so cool that you get to study astrology.’ So with astronomy, my family uses that as a joke against me too. And they’re like, ‘Oh, Maddy, what’s my star sign?’”
Reich is also active in several organizations on campus on top of her studies. Reich plays the flute in Trinity’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble, is the vice president of the Society of Physics Students and is a senior member of David Pooley’s high-energy astrophysics lab. Reich is also a recipient of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious nationwide scholarship awarded to students interested in research in natural science, engineering and mathematics.
As a woman in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), Reich acknowledged the disparities and inequities within traditionally male-dominated disciplines like physics. However, Reich elaborated that Trinity does not reflect the real world, with five of the seven graduating physics majors being women.
“I really like that about Trinity’s environment is that it wasn’t glaringly obvious what the rest of the field is like,” Reich said. “There’s always some sticklers that are, they’ve been in the field for a while. They don’t want to see things change. … But yeah, I think it’s improving.”
To add to Reich’s extensive list of accolades is an out-of-this-world contribution to astrophysics. In summer 2023, while interning at the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Reich filtered and sorted through a collection of data to identify a unique type of space phenomena known as hidden black holes. Hidden black holes essentially are “halfway across the universe” and have a specific orientation that makes viewing them difficult. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Reich was able to identify 77 hidden black holes.
With an array of impressive accomplishments under her belt, Reich hopes to be a part of a new generation of astrophysicists, redefining what the future of women in STEM looks like. Reich’s guiding principle is to not let anyone define what she can or can’t do.
“I’m maybe not the picture of an astrophysicist,” Reich said. “But it’s what I want to do, so I’m going to try to make it happen.”