About Me

Hi, welcome to my website! I'm an astronomer, educator, and general explorer of our amazing Universe.

I have a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Rochester, where I also minored in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Delaware. In graduate school, I specialized in stellar astrophysics, studying the strong, aspherical winds of magnetic massive stars and their influence on the circumstellar environment. Our project, the UV-ADM code, was the first systematic exploration of the factors that affect UV line profile formation in the winds of magnetic massive stars.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Space Telescope Science Institute, where I contribute to the Treasury of Extremely Metal-Poor O Stars (TEMPOS) project. We are using photometry and UV spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and optical spectra from the DEep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) at Keck Observatory to develop a spectral atlas of O-type stars at subsolar metallicity. Previously, I was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at East Tennessee State University, where I taught classes, worked as a faculty mentor with the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program, and studied the winds of Wolf Rayet stars, an evolved class of massive stars. My students and I also created and produced a brand-new planetarium show called "Astronomy in Appalachian Culture," which premiered at the ETSU Planetarium in the Spring of 2023. You can check out the article we wrote about it in the September 2024 issue of the Planetarian , the journal of the International Planetarium Society.

My research in stellar astrophysics uses techniques like spectroscopy and polarimetry to study how stars live, die, and affect their local neighborhoods. I work with both data (observational astronomy) and theoretical models that help to interpret the data we collect. While my research interests center primarily around magnetic and non-magnetic massive (O- and B-type stars), I have also contributed to projects on Mira variables. You can learn more about my current research projects here.

Aside from stars, I spend time thinking about Cultural Astronomy (which connects the study of the universe to the human experience throughout history) and Physics and Astronomy pedagogical theory (how we teach and learn). Both of these topics connect "Astronomy in the Academy" to "Astronomy in the World" in new, exciting, and creative ways. Check out more at my research and resources webpages!