Welcome! I’m an associate professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. My research focuses on adaptive optics technology development and observational exoplanet science.
Adaptive Optics: I develop new technologies and techniques for extreme wavefront control in order to directly image faint exoplanets within a few diffraction widths of bright, nearby stars. Currently, my adaptive optics work includes on-sky development at the Keck II AO system, lab development at the Santa cruz Extreme Ao Lab (SEAL, PI: Jensen-Clem), and simulation development for upcoming instruments including PSI.
Exoplanet Observations: I use large telescopes like Keck, Gemini, and the VLT to directly image exoplanets and brown dwarfs, taking advantage of the treasure-trove of astrometric data provided by the Gaia mission. I also use polarization to study these objects’ atmospheres using high contrast polarimeters such as GPI and SPHERE.