I'm an Astronomer at Harvard working on the TESS Science Team and with the Origins of Life Collaboration. I search for and study planets outside our solar system - to study planetary formation, architecture, and habitability.
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Outside of planetary research, I also study self-lensing binaries with white dwarf companions to investigate white-dwarf structure models and hope to find new self-lensing binaries in TESS data.
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To read more about my research interests and experience, see my research page!
I'm an Astronomer at Harvard working on the TESS Science Team and with the Origins of Life Collaboration. I search for and study planets outside our solar system - to study planetary formation, architecture, and habitability.
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Outside of planetary research, I also study self-lensing binaries with white dwarf companions to investigate white-dwarf structure models and hope to find new self-lensing binaries in TESS data.
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To read more about my research interests and experience, see my research page!
As an undergraduate at MIT, I led an investigation into the micro-lensing of the first discovered, strongly lensed type Ia supernova, iPTF16geu. This system cause commotion when it was discovered, as its standard candle nature plus time delay values, could theoretically lead to a constraint of the Hubble parameter. However, the macro-models published by More et al. 2017 showed significant flux ratio anomolies with the observations of the four images. I constructed a Monte-Carlo simulation, in Python, which showed that the likelihood for micro-lensing to cause these flux ratio anomalies between observations and macro-models was ~3/1000. I then showed that even if the macro-models fit perfectly, the microlensing probability density functions create a probability distribution on the intrinsic brightness with a full width half maximum of 0.73 magnitudes. As such, the error for the standard candle brightness is quite large. This reduces the utility of the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. This project led to a first author paper, and cover article, in the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal Fall 2017, which has 10 academic citations (as of November 2019). I then built on this work, leading three other micro-lensing projects that took advantage of the code that I had generated, culminating in my senior thesis, entitled “Statistical Analyses of Gravitational Microlensing Probability Densities.”
As an undergraduate at MIT, I led an investigation into the micro-lensing of the first discovered, strongly lensed type Ia supernova, iPTF16geu. This system cause commotion when it was discovered, as its standard candle nature plus time delay values, could theoretically lead to a constraint of the Hubble parameter. However, the macro-models published by More et al. 2017 showed significant flux ratio anomolies with the observations of the four images. I constructed a Monte-Carlo simulation, in Python, which showed that the likelihood for micro-lensing to cause these flux ratio anomalies between observations and macro-models was ~3/1000. I then showed that even if the macro-models fit perfectly, the microlensing probability density functions create a probability distribution on the intrinsic brightness with a full width half maximum of 0.73 magnitudes. As such, the error for the standard candle brightness is quite large. This reduces the utility of the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. This project led to a first author paper, and cover article, in the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal Fall 2017, which has 10 academic citations (as of November 2019). I then built on this work, leading three other micro-lensing projects that took advantage of the code that I had generated, culminating in my senior thesis, entitled “Statistical Analyses of Gravitational Microlensing Probability Densities.”
Harvard-MIT Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP)
I am the Deputy Director of the Harvard-MIT Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP), since 2020. The SRMP is a program in which 12 high school students from the public Cambridge Ridge and Latin School conduct research projects with scientists at the CfA and MIT. I mentored three high school students on a project studying self-lensing binaries from 2020-2021.
As the Head of Observing from 2018-2020, I created a program in which I taught the students about lenses, mirrors, and telescopes, and guided them through the construction of galileoscopes. I additionally taught classes in astronomical imaging, instrumentation, and databases at the start of the program, and co-mentor the cohort. My work culminated in an observing night with the SRMP students, using the Clay Telescope and galileoscopes.
Through my work with these students, I have become a better scientist as I learn through teaching and am reminded of the passion and deep interest that first brought me to astronomy.
For more information on the SRMP, see:
Designed by SRMP 2019-2020 student: Greggy Bazille
SRMP Students, October 2019.
Harvard Observing Project (HOP)
From 2019-2020, as a part of the Harvard Observing Project (HOP), I led weekly observing sessions with the 16” Clay Telescope. HOP provides opportunities for undergraduate students at Harvard to participate in observational astronomy, with guidance from experienced observers.
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Fall 2019/Spring 2020: I ran follow-up observations of TESS planet candidates. We observed targets from the SG1: Seeing-Limited Photometry target list. We analyzed the data on the spot with MaxIm DL and then later for a more complete analysis with AstroImageJ. I taught the students about transit data, background eclipsing binaries, and other sources of false positives.
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Spring 2019: We worked on a series of different projects, including spectroscopy and lucky imaging. Using these different observing techniques allowed us to demonstrate how astronomers take advantage of different instruments in order to study a range of topics and take best advantage of observational limitations.
For more information on the HOP, see: http://astrolab.fas.harvard.edu/hop.html