Originally from Tampa, Florida, I graduated Summa cum Laude from the University of Florida in the fall of 2016 with a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy as well as a minor in Mathematics. The following year, I entered the Astronomy and Astrophysics PhD program at the University of Michigan where I received an M.S. in 2019 and am currently a fifth year PhD candidate.

As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, I worked with Prof. Elizabeth Lada and Dr. Naibi Marinas to characterize the circumstellar disk population of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in young star-forming regions using FLAMINGOS spectroscopy and Spitzer photometry. Additionally, I joined the biophysics laboratory of Prof. Stephen Hagen where I worked for two years studying the effects of oxidative stress on the genetic competence network of Streptococcus mutans, published here in 2017.

At present, I work with Prof. Michael Meyer on the characterization of stellar and sub-stellar binary populations of young star-forming regions, the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) and IC 348, using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We developed and implemented a double-PSF fitting algorithm using empirical PSFs that can detect companions at separations below the diffraction limit on the Advanced Camera for Surveys. I have published two first-author papers exploring the 1) low-mass stellar and 2) sub-stellar binary population of the ONC. We are currently working on two other projects that implement this method using HST, results of which are expected to be finalized later this year.

In addition to my research in star-forming regions, I also study the close companion population of intermediate mass A-type stars within 75 pc using the MIRC-X and MYSTIC instruments on the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) interferometric array. With baselines as long as 331m, we can directly detect companions at separations down to 1 milli-arcsecond. We were awarded 2 nights through NSF’s NOIRLab in 2020B to search for companions between ~ 0.1-10 AU, the results of which are in preparation for publication later this semester. We were then awarded 4 nights through the CHARA consortium, sponsored by Prof. John Monnier, to expand this survey to more sources in 2022A.

To learn more about my work and the publications to come soon, check out the “Research” tab at the top of the page.