McGinnis in front of Nancy Grace Roman Telescope

May 20, 2026

Graduate student finds her place studying aerosols

Doctoral student Jennifer McGinnis has been a lifelong learner in the field of aerosols in her time at Colorado State University, even working through a federal shutdown to learn from the experience.

McGinnis went to Maryland in the fall of 2025 as one of three NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II 2025 visiting scholars to study aerosols – particles in the air that are much smaller than fine beach sand and have serious health outcomes.

At Goddard, McGinnis began working with her mentor Robert Levy who is a Research Physical Scientist at NASA. McGinnis learned from Levy as an expert in aerosol satellite retrievals and many other subject matter experts at Goddard, including Alexei Lyapustin – developer of the first satellite algorithm McGinnis learned to plot.

“It was truly a full circle moment in my career to meet him,” said McGinnis.

Then, the record-breaking 43-day shutdown started in October.

“When the government shut down, I wasn’t able to go to the Goddard campus anymore,” said McGinnis. “I ended up going to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) campus quite a lot during the shutdown, and that was really great networking.”