Recent Work
I’m not saying you should read the whole thing, but here it is.
A paper on work I’ve done looking at the observational signal of stellar granulation, seen in low-amplitude, short-timescale variations in the star’s brightness. I’ve improved the ability of a physical model to predict this signal’s amplitude and pointed to where additional simulation work can further improve this model (or where the observations might provide constraints for those simulations). [arXiv, ADS, ApJ]
My poster for SHINE 2019, describing past work and future plans and progress. An updated version of the SPD poster below.
My poster for SPD/AAS 2019, describing past work and future plans and progress. [ADS]
My AGU 2018 poster summarizing previous work and describing future plans. Abstract
My first paper! It’s on the same topic as the bright point poster listed next, but goes into more depth and includes an appendix discussing the difficulty of solidly defining how a bright point moves. [arXiv, ADS, ApJ]
I’m currently using simulations to characterize at high resolution the motion of magnetic bright points in the inter-granular lanes of the solar photosphere. These bright points are regions of strong, vertical magnetic flux, and they are buffeted about by the convective churning of the plasma. Their back-and-forth motion creates Alfvén waves in the magnetic field lines, carrying energy into the upper corona where it’s deposited as heat. [ADS]
I spent a year looking for evidence of water ice underneath Martian sand dunes that might be cementing the dunes in place. This poster was Abstract 2528 at LPSC 2016, and an earlier version was Abstract 8052 at the Fourth International Planetary Dunes Workshop.
Concluding my undergraduate research, I produced refined estimates of the timescales for asteroid collisions. This work was presented as a talk at the 2013 meeting of the Michigan Space Grant Consortium.
We presented effective techniques and results for investigating asteroid families through multiple, disjoint data catalogs. This work was presented as a talk at the 2012 meeting of the Michigan Space Grant Consortium.
Marking my first undergraduate research project, I present progress and future plans regarding probabilities of collisions between asteroids. This poster was presented at the 2011 meeting of the Michigan Space Grant Consortium.
Sometimes maintaining a CV feels like a whole project in itself.
Non-Research Projects
APPA uses the ADS database to let you explore connections between authors. Type in two names and APPA will find the chains of coauthorship (person A published a paper with B, who wrote a paper with C…) connecting those two names.
Gboard on Android lets you send stickers from the keyboard, and while it includes its own set of stickers, any app on the phone can provide more stickers through the keyboard. I made myself an app to do just that! It currently features two sticker packs, one featuring my friends’ dog Finn (the world’s best!), and another featuring my world-traveling cow puppet, Cowwy. Friends and family have given it a 5-star rating!
Those same stickers available in my Android app are also available through the Google Assistant. On any phone with the Assistant, say “OK Google, talk to Finn Stickers” to see Finn and Cowwy pictures on demand, no installation required!
I recorded a year’s worth of images from the pubic webcams surveying my undergrad campus and had some fun making composite images and timelapses.