I'm an astronomer, educator, and general explorer of our amazing Universe. My work
traces the biographies of massive stars, the cosmic engines that shape stellar and
galactic evolution.
I hold a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Rochester (with a minor in Medieval
and Early Modern Studies) and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Delaware,
where I specialized in stellar astrophysics. In my current position, I lead the optical
analysis for the Treasury of Extremely Metal-Poor O Stars (TEMPOS) program, through which we study the massive stellar population of nearby dwarf galaxies,
the local analogs to the environments expected in the early Universe. I also co-lead
the development of SpecpolFlow, an open-source software package for spectropolarimetry, and I am the Director of
the Downing Planetarium at CSU, Fresno.
Research Interests: Massive star astrophysics; stellar evolution; magnetic massive stars; stellar winds
and magnetospheres; low-metallicity stellar populations; early galaxy evolution; ultraviolet,
optical, and infrared spectroscopy; spectropolarimetry; astronomical instrumentation
and data analysis; open-source scientific software and reproducible research.
