Personal
I’m a science software engineer at Space Telescope Science Institute. To learn more about my professional activities, click on a different tab!
I grew up in Cedarburg, Wisconsin and did my undergrad studies at Macalester College, a small undergrad-only liberal arts school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I don’t really have a good origin story for my interest in astronomy and Earth science starting with the words, “ever since I was a kid”, the way some people do. What really happened is that I followed my most inspiring teachers: Amit (high school physics), Mr. Cullen (high school math), Ms. Cibik (11th grade English - nonfiction writing - although I hated it at the time), and especially John Cannon (Macalester astronomy). At some point in undergrad I realized I wanted John to be my adviser, which meant I was going to do galaxies research with him, like it or not. I liked it. I was lucky to receive extremely supportive and caring advising from Drs. Nicolas Chamel, Colin Dundas, and Conor Nixon before grad school as well, and working on various projects with them helped me find where my interests truly lay. I’m now very lucky to have had not one but two fantastic PhD advisers in Bill Collins and Imke de Pater, both of whom went well beyond their job description in supporting me through tough pandemic times. With such outstanding role models for what a scientist should be, it’s no surprise that I value excellence in mentorship and teaching even more highly than excellence in research; you can hear more about how I’ve started to pay it forward on the Teaching & Service page.
My life-work balance is important to me, and I spend a good portion of the “life” part climbing rocks. During the week you’ll find me in the various gyms in the East Bay Area. On the weekends I’m typically getting outside in Tahoe, Bishop, or Mickey’s Beach. And for vacation I’ve slowly been ticking off all the classic climbing destinations in the vast North American West: Joe’s Valley, Moe’s Valley, Indian Creek, Ten Sleep, Squamish, Hueco Tanks, Priest Draw, Red Rocks, J Tree, Smith Rock, the Homestead, Leavenworth, and more to come. Hopefully I’ll remember to start blogging some trip photos. I used to be a pretty serious soccer and Ultimate Frisbee player, and I still find time for those occasionally. I’m a big soccer fan; I follow the MLS (MINNESOTA BLACK AND BLUE!) and the Premier League (no real favorite team).
