Academic journey
I did my Bachelors of Science studies in Astrophysics and Mathematics at the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities (UMN). My entry into research occurred in my sophomore year, in the UMN LIGO group under the guidance of Prof. Vuk Mandic, where I helped characterize the 3D seismic environment in which underground LIGO-like detectors may be located. I implemented a novel weighted-averaging scheme estimating seismic wave speed depth-dependence as a function of site geology and mineralogy. However, I wanted to focus on Astrophysics, so pursued my undegraduate thesis with Prof. Liliya L.R. Williams, where I investigated the role dark matter substructure plays in strong lens reconstructions. Specifically, we focused on the question of whether galaxies with asymmetry in their baryonic and dark matter components can be fit with smooth mass models and found that some galactic models were not sensitive to all alignments of baryonic+DM component.
After graduation, I took some time to be with family following the passing of my mother. I supported myself during this by working in the biophysics wet lab of Dr. Vincent Noireaux at UMN preparing transcription-translation reactions in E. coli. This was a formative experience in that it provided me a glimpse into what it was like to do research for a living and importantly that my passions were truly with astronomy.
Applying on a whim to the XCP Computational Physics Summer Fellowship at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) in 2018 led to a summer working with Drs. Hui Li and Shengtai Li using the LA-COMPASS code to study the role dust coagulation has on the longevity of vortices in 2D protoplantary disks. Not only was this a far-cry from the research I had done in the past, but it was my first foray into computational astrophysics. I was enamored. I naively thought planet formation was a solved problem. We live on a planet, after all. Yet, I learned of the meter sized barrier, the radial drift barrier, and the emerging theories of planet formation spurred on by observations by ALMA. With simulations, I can watch hundreds of thousands of years of disk evolution in a matter of seconds and get one step closer to answering these questions.
But still, I thought, for certain, I wanted to study gravitational lensing. I applied unsuccessfully (for a third time) to PhD programs, but got connected with Dr. Simona Vegetti at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching by Munich, Germany. A summer internship at MPA studying the shapes of halos in IllustrisTNG in CDM and self-interacting had to be put on hold after I suffered complications from a debilitating accident. I continued remotely, while supporting myself as a Teaching Specialist with the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics at UMN. While I did not get accepted to PhD positions at that time, I did get accepted to the Masters of Science Astrophysics program at Ludiwg Maximilians University in Munich, Germany.
For the first year at LMU, I continued studying halo shapes with Dr. Vegetti and Dr. Giulia Despali. However, I kept coming back to protoplanetary disks and planet formation, to the major questions of planet formation I learned during my Fellowship at LANL. I did my Masters thesis with Prof. Dr. Til Birnstiel, whose group had previously collaborated with my mentors at LANL to include a multifluid dust coagulation module into LA-COMPASS. The work for my Masters thesis focused on the observational signatures of vortices in multidimensional simulations and the role dust coagulation has in shaping what we observe. I found that increased dust densities alone cannot account for the differences seen in the radiative transfer.
Watching a system unfurl for me to discover the gems buried within is what drives me.
Hobbies
I have learned, in more ways than one, not take movement for granted, and as such love to spend time moving through Nature. Recent hikes from inn to inn around Zugspitze in the Bavarian Alps, along the coasts of Isle of Skye, and along the mesas of northern New Mexico are all highlights I will carry with me forever. Cycling, too, has blossomed into a new lifelong passion, which spurred me on to (for some crazy reason) bike across the entire state of Iowa in the course of one very hot week in July 2023. Recently I wanted to test my mettle and check off a bucket-list fitness item by doing a triathlon, and, in July 2025 checked it off. Who knows what's to come?
I also greatly enjoy working with my hands and building things, whether that is baking up the next treat for hungry grad students, pulling weeds out in the garden, or putting together a Lord of the Rings LEGO set. My current project is the construction of speaker stands and a mahogany cabinet to hold my record player and growing record collection. If you are ambling about Ann Arbor on the weekends, you might find me at Encore Records perusing the Used section for my next vinyl purchase. Stop and say hi!