About Me
Hello! Thank you for coming to my website. I'm grateful to share a little about myself.
I earned my bachelor's degree in Astronomy and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a semester in Santiago, Chile. Following graduation I held a post-baccalaureate position at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, now NSF's NOIRLab. Finally, I earned my master's degree from the University of Washington as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Through astronomy, I gained proficiency in data collection, cleaning, and analysis, as well as technical communication. (Research)
It took time for me to reimagine my path outside of academia. So I took the time to reconnect with my community. Working with BadgerBots Robotics, I started a program to bring robotics education to underserved students across Madison, WI. (Community) Simultaneously, my journey into natural healing slowly unfolded. In the midst of severe hip pain, I came across a posture series that encourages the body to repair itself. Desperate for relief, I tried it out; four months later I was pain free and deeply inspired. Today, I actively practice a diverse repertoire of natural healing techniques. (Healing)
One thing became clear as I found myself again: I love a rigorous intellectual challenge. I reflected on my most fulfilling projects as an astronomer, and software development immediately stood out. As a summer intern with the Space Telescope Science Institute, I developed a visualization tool to assist in the scheduling of telescope observations. Completing this project successfully gave me enormous confidence in my abilities. Moving forward, I am determined to work in software engineering again. (Software)
Thanks again for visiting! Any interest in anything above? Please feel free to e-mail me.
Natural Healing
Each of the following modalities has its own textbook of information and instruction. I'll simply share how I came in contact with them and why each is meaningful to me.
Daily Meditation
For Material & Spiritual Balance
My journey into meditation began as a personal alternative to psychiatric medication. In 2022 I resolved to stabilize my nervous system naturally, but I didn't know how. At the same time, I was frequently hearing about the immense power of meditation from Nish The Fish. I began by meditating just 5 minutes daily and slowly increased my practice to 5 minutes thrice daily, 10 minutes thrice daily, and finally to an hour per day. Now, meditation is how I connect with God and how I grow my capacity for awareness.
Egoscue Posture Sequence
Restoring the Body's Innate Functionality
When you're in pain, you'll do anything to find a cure. That was me three years ago, when my hip was in constant agony. Passing by a Little Free Library one day, I found The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion and humbly gave it a try. The book offered both physical postures and a philosophical foundation for natural health: responsibility. When I take responsibility to practice the postures, I experience the freedom, flexibility, and openness in my body that then frees me in every other way.
Vision Improvement
I got glasses in elementary school and believed I would have them forever -- until I learned about natural vision improvement. The easiest practices for me were to (a) simply not wear my glasses and (b) "palm", or place the palm of each hand over the corresponding eyelid for extended periods of time. After two years of taking off my glasses whenever possible and palming inconsistently, my prescription has improved by 1.75 diopters in both eyes. My goal is to earn a driver's licence without my glasses.
Fertility Awareness
Knowledge Is Most Definitely Power
When using birth control, I always felt disconnected from my body. As though glossing over my periods kept me from truly reaching myself. I wanted total internal connection. After recognizing that "charting [one's cycle] is a privilege, not a burden" I took the plunge into waking temperatures and cervical fluid. Let me tell you, it. is. AWESOME. Collecting fertility data makes me feel powerful both within my body and as a scientist. As I become more aware of my body's signals, I discover new ways to hear and honor it.
Sobriety / Lucidity
No Longer Chasing A Way Out
2020 was a monumental year for everyone. In my case, I left academia -- the only path I'd ever known -- and survived suicide by returning to my hometown of Madison, WI. Back home with no plan, no confidence, and an abundance of broken relationships, I hated where I found myself. Months passed in a cannabis-induced dream state until paranoia landed me in a psychiatric inpatient care unit. Twice. A change was in order. By Mother's grace, I slowly and gradually reduced my THC intake to none at all, and I continue to play with lucidity through monthly or seasonal renunciation experiments.
Software Engineering
Inspired by my work developing software for space telescopes, I am determined to pursue software engineering as an inherently fulfilling intellectual challenge.
A Scheduling Tool for the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope
Advisor: Dr. Mark Giuliano
Space telescopes require dynamic visualization software to efficiently assess their scheduling constraints and ultimately streamline the process of space-based data acquisition. At the Space Telescope Science Institute, I worked with Dr. Mark Giuliano to create this software for the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. My tool incorporated lightweight (computationally inexpensive), interactive (zooming, scrolling), and independent (stand-alone web page) features for optimized use and communication among operations specialists. For my debut software development project, I quickly adopted a product-oriented approach to solving problems, communicating with users and adjusting tool functionality to match their feedback. (Tool Example, Documentation, Original Code, Presentation [55:15 - 1:04:34])
Launch School
The Slow Path to a Career in Software Development
Outside of academia, I realized that I needed a deeper foundation in software engineering in order to establish my long-term career. Then came Launch School. Unlike software boot camps which promise intensive training and instant job entry (with variable participant success), Launch School focuses on the long-term. Students master the fundamentals at each stage of their curriculum, and they don't move on to Steps B or C without completely mastering Step A. While this may seem slow-paced, it's the surest way to achieve a successful, sustainable, and satisfying career in software. Launch School’s free preparatory courses were well worth my time; even though most of the topics were familiar, the depth of each lesson was uniquely profound. (GitHub)
Astronomy Research
As an astronomer my research spanned a wide range of astronomical domains including star formation, galaxy evolution, and intersections with data science.
Explore Publications through the Astrophysics Data System
NGC 5523: An Isolated Product of Soft Galaxy Mergers?
Advisor: Prof. Jay Gallagher
My first investigation with Prof. Jay Gallagher focused on the formation of isolated galaxies, whose evolutionary histories mimic those of the first galaxies in the Universe. Due to their isolation, these galaxies are thought to evolve with minimal interactions; however, NGC 5523 demonstrates asymmetrical features indicative of disruptive galaxy mergers. My multi-wavelength photometric, or “light measurement”, analysis with the Spitzer Space Telescope and Kitt Peak 3.5- Meter Telescope constrained the timescales of potential collisions between NGC 5523 and former companions, a scenario of “isolation by annexation”. (Fulmer, Gallagher, & Kotulla, 2017, A&A, 598, A119)
Incoming! Evolutionary Trends in Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Advisor: Prof. Jeff Kenney
As a Dorrit Hoffleit Research Scholar at Yale University, I worked with Prof. Jeff Kenney to uncover direct evidence of galaxy cluster dynamics within the Virgo Cluster. I joined ultraviolet-through-infrared photometry for 50 Virgo galaxies, modeled the observational data with theoretical spectral energy distributions, and derived physical properties from these models. Our findings revealed a strong connection between galaxy mass, star formation rate, neutral hydrogen gas accretion, and location at the outskirts of the cluster. This trend suggests a common stage of neutral gas accretion among infalling cluster galaxies, and I communicated our exciting developments at the 227th American Astronomical Society (AAS) Meeting. (Conference Poster)
Star Stuff: Physical Properties of Molecular Clouds in the Magellanic Bridge
Advisor: Prof. Monica Rubio
I interwove my parallel majors in Astronomy and Spanish through an exchange program at the University of Chile. While there, I collaborated with Prof. Monica Rubio to investigate gaseous environments in the Magellanic Clouds, the closest galactic neighbors to our Milky Way. These sister galaxies exhibit ongoing, active star formation despite an unusual lack of dense interstellar gas, the necessary resource to form stars. Therefore, characterizing the size, temperature, luminosity, mass, and other physical properties of their molecular clouds (i.e., stellar birthplaces) allows us to probe the necessary conditions for star formation within sparse environments. My analysis of submillimeter CO observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array constrained these physical properties within the Magellanic Clouds, establishing a foundation from which to investigate star formation in low gas densities. As a student in Chile, I engaged in scientific collaboration with one of the leading countries in observational astronomy.
Skyscrapers in the Desert: Massive Star Evolution at Low Metallicity
Advisor: Prof. Jay Gallagher
Upon returning from Chile, I related my understanding of star formation to the subsequent evolution of stellar populations. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) demonstrates an active history of massive star formation, as well as giant gaseous shell structures indicative of energetic stellar deaths, or supernovae. Prof. Gallagher and I collaborated with astronomers at the University of Potsdam, Germany to uncover the origins behind such dynamic stellar evolution. By combining a widespread ultraviolet photometric survey with stellar spectroscopy, we exposed erratic, popcorn-like star formation patterns beginning hundreds of millions of years ago and continuing into the present. Most notably, young stars within the volume of the supergiant shell SMC-SGS-1 suggest that some molecular clouds remain stagnant and star-forming even as nearby supernovae expel all other nearby gas and dust. (Paper, Poster, GitHub)
Declining Galactic Star Formation Rates + Data Accessibility
Advisor: Dr. Stephanie Juneau
As a Data Reduction Specialist at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, now NSF's NOIRLab, I explored both cosmological galaxy evolution and web based software development with Dr. Stephanie Juneau. By tracking how galactic star formation rates evolve with their local environments, we may understand the physics responsible for large-scale changes in the cosmic star formation rate. My reduction of spectroscopic data from the ESO VLT Visible Imaging Multi- Object Spectrograph produced a catalog of redshift measurements for a population of roughly 400 massive galaxies previously investigated with Herschel, and laid the groundwork for subsequent studies of their local environments. Simultaneously, I contributed to foundational expansions of the Astro Data Lab, a webspace that empowers astronomers to explore, visualize, and analyze data from NOIR facilities. (Data Lab Science Example: Visualize Star Clusters)
Time Series Anomaly Detection in Astronomy+
Advisors: Dr. Daniela Huppenkothen + Prof. Mario Juric
Every time people observe the Universe in a new way, we discover new phenomena. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory promises to observe the largest area of the sky more frequently than any other telescope in astronomical history with highly sensitive optical instrumentation. With more observations than humans could ever identify by eye in a lifetime, automatic classification becomes a vital element in navigating the next generation of astronomical research. The objective for my graduate research was to develop a flexible anomaly detection algorithm for heterogeneous time series data (e.g. sparse, irregular, heteroscedastic), beginning with a simulated data set developed for the Kaggle Photometric LSST Astronomical Time-Series Classification Challenge.
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i = 0;
while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
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}
print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';
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