What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I’m a PhD student at The Ohio State University. Within DESI, I’m a part of the Lyman-alpha forest working group and currently serve as co-chair of the Education and Public Outreach Committee.
Where were you born?
I was born in Maryland, but grew up in Portland, Oregon.
Where do you live now?
I currently live in Columbus, Ohio (for one more year!) as I finish my PhD.
What do you do as part of DESI?
I primarily work on developing methods to help improve the Lyman-alpha forest analysis and obtain tighter cosmological constraints. I do this through different applications of machine learning, so this means I often get to teach myself new machine learning techniques which is always fun!
What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I think the most exciting thing for me is that I get to analyze light that was emitted billions of years ago, peering into the Universe’s past to help uncover its secrets (which are still mostly unknown to us!). It’s really amazing and a privilege to get to do this on a daily basis.
Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Persistence really pays off. There will be several days that test your patience or where nothing seems to be going right, but it helps to remind yourself of the big picture and why you chose to pursue this in the first place.
What do you do for fun?
I love to cook and bake (I have a major sweet tooth)! I also enjoy lifting weights, playing pickleball, and of course watching movies and TV shows.
If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
It’s hard to imagine not being a scientist — before I discovered my love for astrophysics, I wanted to be a forensic scientist and then a neuroscientist. But if I had to choose something completely different, maybe I would be a baker!
What excites/interests you most about DESI?
I think the new tensions we’ve been seeing with the standard cosmological model that hint to dark energy maybe evolving have been really exciting. I’m really interested to see where it goes as we gather more data and refine analysis methods!
