Welcome

I am an STScI Scientist who joined the Hubble Space Telescope STIS team in 2016 to help maintain the continued health and performance of STIS. In 2020, I became the team lead for STIS, and I am both excited and honored to care for one of the two instruments that provide ultraviolet spectroscopy to the astronomical community. For my research, I study red giant stars in search of ones that have devoured their planets. Come explore my pages to learn more about what I do.

Research Overview
  • Doomed planets

    Doomed Exoplanets

    The final stages of stellar evolution spell bad news for the closest planets when their stars swell to become giant stars. Unlike our Sun, many stars have Jupiter and Neptune sized planets orbiting close by. What happens to a star that devours a Jupiter is quite different from what happens to a star that devours a Mercury!

  • Google Sky View of M67

    Open Clusters and Large Surveys

    Red giant stars can be tricky to study. Low and intermediate mass stars look nearly identical as red giants, yet their histories have been drastically different and their centrail cores will continue to evolve under very different conditions. Studies of giants in clusters or large surveys of field stars (e.g., APOGEE) are needed to understand them.

  • Periodic table

    Chemical Make-up

    Although stars are mostly hydrogen, the relative amounts of all the other elements tell us a lot about the star's history: about its birthplace in the Galaxy, what is going on deep in the stellar interior, and how it may have interacted with companions (both stellar and substellar). Lithium in particular has a lot to say.

Curriculum Vitae