I received my bachelor's degree in 2021 from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where I majored in physics and astronomy and minored in French and Mathematics. I am currently wrapping up my PhD in Astrophysics at Arizona State University.
My research focuses on galaxy evolution, in particular understanding the role of feedback from supermassive black holes. I primarily work with cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, using them as laboratories to test different implementations of feedback physics and comparing against observations of the diffuse gas around galaxies. I am also a Guest Scientist in the XRISM Collaboration and have worked with modelling high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy in the circumgalactic and intergalactic medium. During my PhD, I became interested in discipline-based education research, and have worked on and led several projects focused on learning astronomy in online environments. You can learn about my research in more detail here.
Beyond research, I am extremely passionate about science communication and outreach. I have several social media channels dedicated to science communication, I am an author for Astrobites, and am an organizer for the Astronomy on Tap: Valley of the Sun chapter. I love visiting classrooms, giving public talks, and building trust and enthusiam around science.
In my outreach work, I always try to emphasize that scientists are people too and have many interests beyond their research. To that point I enjoy hiking, mountain biking, playing soccer (poorly), and indoor rock climbing (even more poorly). I have been a musician for almost my entire life, playing drums and other percussion instruments as well as guitar. I'm a big fan of cozy video games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and I have a cat named Atlas.