About Me

I am a combined observer, theorist and data scientist who is broadly interested in galaxy formation in a cosmological context. I use a combination of pencil-and-paper theory, numerical simulations, and observations with both ground- and space-based telescopes to understand the connection between star formation, black hole formation, galaxy formation and large-scale structure formation. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University funded by an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Grant that I conceived, having recently finished my tenure as a NASA Hubble Prize Postdoctoral Fellow. Previously, I was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at UC Santa Cruz as well as a Summer Research Associate and Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Flatiron Institute where I completed my PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics (2016-2021). Prior to that, I was one of the first post-baccalaureate students in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University (2014-2016). My pathway into astronomy was non-traditional: I did not know that I wanted to be (or even could be) an astronomer until I was already about to graduate from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in economics & mathematics (2013).

My research has been funded by: