Research
My research focus is broadly galaxy evolution and cosmology. I have been a member of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment and the Dragonfly Telephoto Array team, and I am the X-ray Transients Sub-Group lead for the High Energy X-ray Probe (HEX-P) proposal team.
I am interested in understanding the processes that impact star formation and the baryon cycle in low mass, low metallicity galaxies. I use both observations (of stellar populations and the gas in and around galaxies) and simulations to more holistically study the conditions under which star formation proceeds (or doesn’t!) in local dwarf galaxies and galaxies at high redshift. An up-to-date list of quenched, isolated dwarf galaxy candidates and their inferred physical properties is available here.
See below for some research highlights (with brief summaries) and a list of publications.
Galaxy Evolution
Time-Domain Astronomy
In a past life, my research was focused on time-domain astronomy (it’s where my astrophysics research career started when I was an undergraduate at Northwestern!). It’s a subfield I still love and return to sporadically.
Software
In my spare time, I enjoy working on more computationally oriented projects that will hopefully be useful to the larger community. A few such projects are in the works right now, so do check back for updates.
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albumpl– Custom matplotlib color palettes based on album covers. -
angelus– Crossmatch a field with existing galaxy catalogs and check virial coverage. (This idea was spun off of a function inuwstatus, my package for checking the status of Dragonfly UW observations and cross-matching UW fields with existing galaxy catalogs.)
Some software comes out of the course of my usual work, too!
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xraydlps– Plot and classify X-ray transient light curves. -
silkscreen– Infer properties of dwarf galaxies and star clusters from survey imaging using simulation-based inference. -
delight– Deep Learning Identification of Galaxy Hosts of Transients
Publications
Below is a list of submitted, accepted, and published papers. My CV lists some additional in preparation papers, which have not yet been submitted, but for which drafts exist. These drafts may be made available upon reasonable request (as for fellowship or grant evaluation).
2024
2023
- ApJThe Luminosity Phase Space of Galactic and Extragalactic X-ray Transients Out to Intermediate RedshiftsApJ, Dec 2023
- ApJDetection of Cosmological 21 cm Emission with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping ExperimentApJ, Apr 2023
2022
- AJDELIGHT: Deep Learning Identification of Galaxy Hosts of Transients using Multiresolution ImagesAJ, Nov 2022
2021
- ApJLA Recently Quenched Isolated Dwarf Galaxy Outside of the Local Group EnvironmentApJL, Jun 2021