About Me
I am a PhD Candidate in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My research interests include the Milky Way, galaxy formation and evolution, stellar spectroscopy, and applied statistics. In my free time, I enjoy reading, rock climbing, baking, playing video games, listening to podcasts, and hiking.
Education
PhD (in progress) IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
University of California, Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz, CA
Thesis Title: Formation and evolution of Local Group galaxies using resolved stellar spectroscopy
Committee: Raja GuhaThakurta, Connie Rockosi, Melissa Ness, Brant Robertson
MSc IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
University of California, Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz, CA
Research: Measuring chemical abundances of main sequence turn-off stars in the Milky Way’s stellar halo from the HALO7D survey.
Advisors: Raja GuhaThakurta, Connie Rockosi
BSc (HONOURS) IN PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
Queen’s University | Kingston, ON, Canada
Governor General’s Academic Silver Medal - awarded to the undergraduate with the highest academic standing in an honours bachelors degree
Research: Assessing Next Generation Virgo Survey photometry to measure diffuse light in stellar halos around Virgo Cluster galaxies.
Advisor: Stéphane Courteau
Experience
TEACHING ROLES
UCSC Teaching Assistant ASTR119 - Introduction to Scientific Computing, Spring 2021
UCSC Science Internship Program Mentor - Summers 2018 and 2020
UCSC Teaching Assistant ASTR118 - Physics of Planetary Systems, Fall 2019
UCSC Teaching Assistant AY1 - Intro to the Cosmos, Spring 2018
UCSC Project Mentor AY9 - Intro to Research, Winter & Spring 2018
OBSERVING EXPERIENCE
KAST on Shane Telescope, Lick Observatory
DEIMOS on Keck II, Mauna Kea
OTHER EXPERIENCES
Grad Student organizer for Lick Observatory’s “La Noche de las Estrellas”
Dunlap Summer School
Mauna Kea Summer School, May 2016
Research
HALO7D
The Halo Assembly in Lambda CDM: Observations in 7 Dimensions (HALO7D) survey consists of deep, multi-epoch HST images for astrometry and medium resolution Keck II/DEIMOS spectroscopy for ~250 MW stellar halo stars (see Cunningham+2016, 2019a, 2019b). My contribution to this project is to measure chemical abundances and constrain heliocentric distances from the spectroscopic observations. Future work will focus on using the 7D chemodynamics of our halo stars to measure the properties of the progenitor systems that built up the MW stellar halo.
SALVATION
The Spectroscopic Analysis of Luminous Variables And Transients In Our Neighbour (SALVATION) group has been performing ZTF spectroscopic follow-up with the KAST instrument on the Shane Telescope. Our targets are selected from the ANTARES alert broker with a filter for particularly peculiar transients and variables in the direction of M31 (Soraisam+2020). Currently, I am leading the observations (4 nights in Fall 2019, 11 nights and 15 ToOs in Fall 2020) which has led to many Astronomer’s Telegrams (12 released to date). The next stage of this work is to infer how the spectroscopically-derived stellar parameters correlate with changes in the observed light curves.
NGVS Photometry and Diffuse Stellar Haloes in Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Assessing the depth of Next Generation Virgo Survey (NGVS) photometry and measuring diffuse light from stellar halos around Virgo Cluster galaxies by isophote-fitting and analyzing radial surface brightness profiles.
Outreach
Astronomy on Tap Public Talk
UCSC’s chapter of Astronomy on Tap puts on monthly public talks to inform the local community about astronomical research and discoveries. In May 2021, I presented a virtual talk titled “The Milky Way Structure Throughout History”, which summarizes our understanding of the MW structure throughout history to the present day. Check out the YouTube recording of the talk if you’re interested!
La Noche de las Estrellas
Lick Observatory hosts a visitor’s night for the Spanish-speaking community called “La Noche de las Estrellas”. Leading up to the main evening at the Observatory, UCSC Astro grads visit local high school science classrooms and clubs to run astronomy-themed activities, answer questions about space, and dispel common myths about what a scientist looks/acts like. Since October 2017, I have been involved in visiting classrooms, assisting on the main telescope night, and I currently act as the head grad organizer.
Undergraduate Mentoring
Through UCSC’s Society of Physics Students (SPS) and Women in Physics and Astronomy (WiPA) groups, I have been a mentor to incoming first-year and transfer students in the undergraduate Physics department. Each year, we are paired with a mentee to provide guidance in terms of choosing courses, applying to research groups, planning for grad school, and checking in on their transition to university.
Research Mentoring
I have co-mentored groups of undergraduate physics students through UCSC’s AY9 - Introduction to Research course. This course allows students to experience what real scientific research is like by guiding them through an open research question and learning to perform data analysis. One goal of this course is to attract first-generation college students and students from underrepresented groups to increase retention and interest in STEM.