Biography

Hello! I graduated from Cornell University with a major in astronomy with a concentration in astrophysics and a minor in physics. I’m very passionate about astrophysics research and pursuing ideas across disciplines. In my free time, I like to play piano, bass guitar and chess. I’m also an avid reader, enjoying genres from classic literature to science fiction.

My academic genealogy includes Millikan, Rabi, Sommerfeld, Wilkinson, Oppenheimer, Zwicky, J.J. Thomson, Born, Ehrenfest, Pauli, and Weyl. My Einstein number is 5 (Battaglia → Bond → Fowler → Zwicky → Einstein). Just by association, my genealogy would also include Feynman through Professor Jim Gates.

I also played cello for 10 years, and my pedagogical genealogy includes Wang → Starker → Schiffer → Popper.

Research Background

I have been conducting research for over two years alongside Professor Nicholas Battaglia and Dr. John Orlowski-Scherer, and more recently, Professor Michael Coughlin and Will Benoit. Under the Fulbright Award, I will be conducting cosmic ray research at the University of Perugia for 9 months. Afterwards, I will attend the University of California, Riverside to pursue a PhD in Astronomy.

Current Research Interests

☄️ Under Professor Battaglia and Dr. Orlowski-Scherer, I have been studying thermal emission flux from asteroids in our solar system. We use data collected by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, which has prompted new questions into asteroid regolith, such as the flux discrepancies across infrared and millimeter wavelengths.

🌊 Under Professor Coughlin and Will, I have been implementing a novel machine learning algorithm in the context of gravitational waves. We use data collected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, and I have developed a user-interface for scientists to better understand the distribution of the black hole simulation parameters under this algorithm.

✨ Inspired by my high school particle physics teacher, I recently submitted a paper detailing a cosmic ray muon experiment I conducted in high school. Our results constrain the accuracy of QuarkNet detectors in high school classrooms, but more importantly, we ask high schoolers to develop their own experiments to help improve detectors and conduct science on their own.