About Me

I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto (UofT), and a doctoral fellow of the Data Sciences Institute at UofT. I received my Bachelor’s of Science from Yale University, with majors in Astrophysics and Anthropology.

My research, supervised by Gwen Eadie and Josh Speagle, focuses on the evolution of low-mass galaxies using globular clusters as probes. I work in the interdisciplinary field of astrostatistics, using novel statistical methodologies to characterize the scaling relations between low-mass galaxies and their globular cluster populations (or lack thereof). I am a member of the Astrostatistics Research Team (ART) at UofT.

I am also passionate about teaching. I have held a course instructor position, which included course development, and have extensive experience TAing.

When I’m not working, I like to spend my time cooking and baking, reading, traveling, and caring for my many houseplants.

If you'd like to get in touch, my email address is sam.berek[at]mail.utoronto.ca