My personal website. I am originally from Denver, Colorado, but spent most of my life growing up in Eastern Iowa. I completed my undergraduate degree in physics with minors in astronomy and computer science at Iowa State University in 2019. I also had an REU with the NRAO in Socorro, NM at the VLA in the summer of 2018. I enjoy using programming to solve astronomical problems and provide tools for other astronomers. Some of my research interests include instrumentation, exoplanets, statistics, Bayesian analysis, and machine learning. Outside of research I enjoy hiking, climbing, biking, camping, playing video games, and photography. You can see a selection of some of my favorite photos in my portfolio. One of my photos of the VLA has been featured on NASA’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). Check it out here.

Ph.D. Topic

My thesis broadly works towards high-contrast imaging at visible wavelengths, which can probe the reflected light in gas from protoplanetary disks. Studying these disks is imperative to complementing imaging studies in the near-IR and sub-mm radio of substructures which may answer questions about planetary formation. In particular, I am building instrumentation for the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) visible-light instrument VAMPIRES and using it for imaging protoplanetary disks. I have already designed, deployed, and characterized a classic Lyot-style coronagraph and am currently working on a multiband-imaging upgrade which will add very low spectral resolution (R=12-16), which is useful for post-processing as well as characterizing dust in disks.