Zachary Gelles

Zachary Gelles

Physics Ph.D. student at Princeton University.

Teaching and Outreach

I enjoy teaching physics and building community both within my department and beyond. Below are some of my activities in these areas.

Teaching

At Princeton, I have served as an assistant instructor for two courses related to my research — "General Relativity" (AST 301) and "Black Holes" (AST 206). I also designed and taught a seven-lecture general relativity crash course for members of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.

Outreach

Outside the classroom, I have given public talks at the New Jersey State Museum Planetarium and Astronomy on Tap Trenton. Each year, I lead the Princeton Gravity Initiative's presence at Spring Into Science, where local elementary school students visit campus for interactive demonstrations.

Spring Into Science outreach table with Princeton Gravity Initiative demonstrations Spring Into Science visitors participating in a gravity demonstration
Spring Into Science outreach with the Princeton Gravity Initiative.

Community

Within the Princeton physics department, I mentor undergraduate students through ReMatch and first-year graduate students through TIPOTS. I have also helped organize prelim preparation meetings, and I manage the department summer softball team — the Big Bangers.

The Big Bangers, the Princeton physics department summer softball team
The Big Bangers, Princeton physics department summer softball.