About

I am an observational astronomer working to understand the the formation, evolution, and habitability of distant worlds, primarily by observing their transits with space-based telescopes. I grew up in Boise, Idaho, where I completed my undergraduate studies at Boise State University, majoring in physics and applied mathematics with a minor in computer science. I then completed a dual-title PhD in astronomy and astrobiology at the University of Washington before moving on to a postdoc at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I'm currently a postdoc at the University of Arizona, where I'm a member of the science team for the Pandora smallsat mission .

Research

My research interests span all aspects of planetary systems: the composition of planets and their atmospheres, the dynamics of the planetary system, and the properties of the host star. I have a special interest in understanding how the characteristics of a planet's atmosphere depends on the planet's mass, radius, temperature, and host stellar properties, as these are the factors that determine planetary habitability.

During my PhD I developed a machine learning method that makes use of Gaussian processes to mitigate the effects of stellar variability, enabling precise measurements of planetary transits. I've also employed Gaussian process modeling to measure the rotation of thousands of stars observed by NASA's K2 mission. As a postdoc I participated in a large JWST program aimed at understanding the atmospheres of sub-Neptune exoplanets. In my second postdoc I am carrying out research as a core member of the Pandora mission's science team, while continuing to use JWST to study exoplanetary atmospheres. The Pandora mission is a recently launched NASA Pioneer mission which aims to measure the transmission spectra of a sample of exoplanets while simultaneously studying the activity of their host stars.

In addition to the science questions that drive my research, I am also interested in applying cutting-edge machine learning and probabilistic modeling techniques to astronomical datasets. In particular, I'm interested in building differentiable models for analyzing multiwavelength transit observations to recover accurate and precise transmission and emission spectra of exoplanets. Not only are these techniques necessary in the short term to squeeze every bit of information possible out of current observatories, but they were also help us maximize the potential of future observatories to answer the deepest questions of our time.