ESP Biography



NICHOLAS MEHRLE, First year graduate student in Astronomy




Major: Astronomy

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of Nicholas Mehrle

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS and MA in Physics in 2016. Then I spent some time as a market maker for wheat derivatives at a high frequency trading firm. After that I spent some time as a web developer making client-side web apps to teach basic astronomy concepts. Now I'm a graduate student at MIT studying Astronomy. Specifically I'm interested in exoplanets and right now I'm working on spectroscopic observations of exoplanet atmospheres.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S11698: The Flat Earth and Debunking Conspiracy Theories in Splash 2017 (Nov. 18 - 19, 2017)
In this session, we will discuss the central tenants of the 'Flat Earth Theory' and the elements thereof which, to a naive observer, appear to be consistent with observations. We will then discuss how additional observations can be used to debunk this theory, and how to avoid falling prey to simple, attractive, and yet wrong theories like the 'Flat Earth'. The goal of the session is to build scientific reasoning in students, and give them the tools to critically consider scientific theories. The session will be not be a lecture but will be highly interactive, focusing on allowing students to think about and counter several 'Flat Earth' talking points on their own.