I study exoplanet atmospheres using a mixture of theory and observation. I'm most interested in measuring and understanding the causes of spatial heterogeneity in atmospheres, leveraging both space-based and ground-based approaches. My work also includes magnetic fields, photochemistry, and code optimization.
Currently, I'm most excited about exploring the "3D biases" of inference using high-resolution spectroscopy, retrieving JWST limb asymmetries, and cross-correlating against JWST data.
See below for some of my recent projects! Click on the images for more information.
High-resolution spectroscopy is sometimes difficult to understand. I addressed this complexity bottom-up by forward-modeling the components (star, tellurics, planet) from scratch, along with applying standard data analysis techniques, to show that time-varying tellurics can impact inferences. Along the way, I developed an open-source tool to simulate these datasets.
Hot gas giants should have magnetic fields — but we don't know how strong they are. I developed a novel method for constraining exoplanetary B fields by measuring velocity differences between atmospheric gases.
I'm indexing every theoretical and observational paper on exoplanet atmospheres and high-resolution spectroscopy.
Simulating exoplanet atmospheres at high spectral resolution requires high-resolution opacity (i.e., cross-section) data. Loading such large files onto machines (especially GPUs) can be tricky. I developed a simple method for decreasing the amount of memory consumed by opacity data by an order of magnitude.
I examined atmospheric asymmetries across the hot Jupiter population. This work showed that CO is an excellent tracer of spatial non-uniformity, that morning-limb clouds generally produce increasing blueshifts in transmission spectra, and that it's difficult to uniquely isolate chemistry as a driver of asymmetry.
Using a suite of theoretical models, I showed that iron condensation isn't required to explain existing ground-based observations of WASP-76b's spectrum. Two compelling alternative explanations include clouds and a non-circular orbit.
By searching and accounting for unresolved stellar companions near Kepler targets in Prof. Courtney Dressing's group, I've made updates to exoplanet occurrence rates.
With Dr. Lea Hirsch, I've worked to extend an image-reduction pipeline and make it open-source.