Greetings!

About Me

I am a postdoctoral researcher in Astrophysics, working with Beth Willman at Haverford. In July 2010 I recieved my PhD from Rutgers University working with Chuck Keeton, and have been at Haverford since September 2010. In addition to research, I have the pleasure of teaching as an HHMI Teaching Fellow at Haverford, under which I co-taught this class.

My Work

My research focuses on the detection and characterization of the smallest galaxies in the universe. These galaxies serve as important tests of the Cold Dark Matter model and hierarchical galaxy formation. The abundance (as a function of mass) and density profiles of such satellites inform us about the properties of Dark Matter, while detailed studies of their baryonic components tell us about the astrophysics of low (virial) mass, low metallicity star formation, and the assembly of host stellar halos.

Like many areas of Astronomy and Astrophysics, we are in the data starved regime - only a few tens of low mass satellies (classical and ultra-faint dwarfs) have been found in the Local Group, while many fewer have been studied at cosmological distances. My work revolves around both improving our sample size, and extracting the most out of detailed studies of such systems. This involves developing new algorithms to help us better mine data, and applying rigorous methods to individual cases. Please see my research page for more details.