By Dany Villarreal Martinez

For the next decade Meredith L. Rawls, a UW Research Scientist, will work with the largest astronomical digital camera at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, where she will find ways to automate image analysis.

When Rawls is not pipelining photons into images of our vast space, she is looking to our orbiting friends: satellites. 

Satellite constellations, as Rawls describes them, are low orbit satellites that show up in pictures taken of our night sky. This can be misleading for astronomers like her when identifying objects in the sky. What might have been a monumental discovery of a new star, comet, or any other phenomena left to be explored, might just be a bright satellite racing around the Earth. 

Private companies such as SpaceX launch a mass amount of satellites each year for faster and widespread connections to the internet, according to Rawls. In 2019, there were about 2000 operational satellites, and now, in 2025, there will be over 11000.

“It’s kind of like this new space race situation,” Rawls said. “The issue is it’s a bit of an unregulated Wild West because there are not a lot of laws that apply to orbital space.” 

While drawing country boundaries in space is not realistic, part of Rawls’ work advocates for private companies to ensure their satellites will not interfere with astronomical work. 

“Rawls is one of the absolute leading voices in raising concern for satellites at Rubin Observatory,” James Davenport, a UW Professor of Astronomy and long-time friend of Rawls, said. 

Rawls is a co-leader of SatHub, which wishes for darker and quieter skies. Rawls’ works on developing data software and tools to share with astronomers around the world. The goal, according to Rawls, is to automate the process of identifying satellites from other objects in space alongside her work with the Rubin Observatory.  

Eric Bellm, a Research Associate Professor and one of Rawls’ supervisors shares how unique, and impressive, it is for Rawls to have direct communication with the Rubin Observatory’s project leadership. 

Rawls’ love for space came early. Born in Michigan, but raised in eastern Washington, Rawls calls herself a “cliche” as she was like every now-astronomer: a kid looking up in wonder at the deep, dark night sky. 

“I had no idea that I would eventually work for an observatory in Chile,” Rawls said, reminiscing about her undergraduate years at Harvey Mudd College, where she was able to visit Chile twice as part of her research project. 

She then completed her postdoctoral fellowship at UW, after graduating with a PhD from New Mexico State University in 2016. 

“I joined the UW team at a time when there weren’t that many of these newfangled types of resources,” Rawls said. “A lot of us were self-taught and had figured out basic data analysis, kind of, on our own.” 

Rawls’ passion and interest for growing her software development skills gained the trust of her supervisors and she was hired as a full-time research scientist.  

“We saw her growing skills and experience,” Bellm said. “Our code bases are large and complicated things with a lot of moving parts, it takes a lot to get familiar with the systems and she was excited to keep moving with that.” 

Davenport said Rawls is a dedicated worker and wonderful teacher, helping students whenever she can. 

“Meredith is a team member who brings a lot of glue,” Bellm said. “She is someone who is present in the team, easy to relate to, and happy to share.”