Megan McClure - 2002 Winning Essay

Since age ten, I have been obsessed with understanding the universe. My goal is to become a professor so that I can teach and do research in astrophysics.

As a teenager, I was in the Calgary Space Club, attended the US Space Academy, and read every space-related book I could. Unfortunately, I found school too tedious to attend or do work, and I was thrown out. I attended only six months of grade 6, five months of grade 7, two months of grade 8, and two weeks of grade 9. At that point the school system gave up on me. My career in school was over. My chances of attending university were poor, yet through obtaining a 90.6% average in five correspondence courses, I matriculated into the University of Calgary. Twice my GPA was in the top 2%, which earned me Louise McKinney Scholarships, and in 2000 I obtained a First Class Honours B.Sc. in Astrophysics.

I was awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for the 2000-2001 academic year and completed an M.Sc. in Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. My research demonstrated a 50% variation in the Hubble constant to show the universe does not expand uniformly.

This year, holding a NSERC of Canada Post-Graduate Scholarship, I commenced my Ph.D. in Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and will continue into the second year for 2002-2003. My current research is in General Relativity and cosmology with the goal to explain how the evolution of the universe's structure is possible.