I am a National Science Foundation Science, Technology and Society (STS) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Visiting Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP). I am working with MIT Physics Department Faculty, including Professors David Kaiser and Alan Guth, in the MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society and the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP). My research interests include observational astronomy, cosmology, and the interface between astrophysics and the philosophy of science, specifically the philosophy of cosmology.

   I recently completed a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the Harvard University Department of Astronomy (May 2012). My PhD thesis project with Professor Robert Kirshner is on Infrared Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae. Type Ia Supernovae can be used as standardizable candles for cosmology to measure the expansion history of the universe and constrain the mysterious dark energy thought to be causing the acceleration of cosmic expansion. The supernova aspect of the project uses infrared data obtained with the fully robotic 1.3 meter Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL) at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins, Arizona (P.I. Professor Joshua Bloom, UC Berkeley). My previous work with Professor Ramesh Narayan and Professor Joshua Bloom focused on testing the potential applications of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) for cosmology by studying GRB spectra and energetics. My work has been supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellowship, where I collaborated with researchers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, including Dr. Neil Gehrels, the Principal Investigator of the NASA Swift Satellite, a space experiment that studies both GRBs and supernovae.