About Me
I am a fourth year graduate student working in computational astrophysics under the direction of Brian Chaboyer at Dartmouth College. My research focuses on the Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Program (DSEP) code. The goal of my thesis is to develop a 2-D stellar evolution code inspired by the current 1-D model, integrating modules from the MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics) code.
I attended Bucknell University from 2009 to 2013 and received Bachelor of Science degrees in both physics and mathematics. Since my undergraduate sophomore year, I have participated in a number of competitive summer research programs, workshops, and conferences. During the summer of 2011, I analyzed the emission patterns of three blazars at Bucknell Univeristy's REU program and presented my work at AAS the following winter. During the summer of 2012, I tested PSF (point spread function) fitting responses in prototype software at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory under the direction of Dr. John Marriner. In June of 2014, I presented a poster on photometry of metal-poor stars at AAS, and I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computational Science the following October.
I spent the summer of 2015 at MIT working on computational physics problems as a software engineer for Lincoln Laboratory. Following this, I participated in a week-long intensive course in stellar evolution and MESA-programming hosted at UCSB. In the winter of that year, I had a first-author publication accepted in the Astrophysical Journal and officially earned my M.S. in Physics and Astronomy from Dartmouth. I presented my work on my publication at January's AAS meeting and received an honorable mention in the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement graduate student poster contest. This past spring, I defended and passed my thesis proposal and attended the Cool Stars 19 conference hosted in Uppsala, Sweden. After returning briefly to the US to get married, I attended a course in parallel programming and supercomputing hosted by the Center for Scientific Computing in Finland. I anticipate graduating some time in 2018.
I have practice observing, but my background and work experience are primarily in theory. I spend most of my time as a "keyboard astronomer," developing with several languages daily (Python, bash, Perl, awk, IRAF, C, LaTeX, Fortran). My repertoire is always expanding. When I'm not coding, I enjoy working with initiatives for women in science, dancing, and hiking with my dog.
