I am an assistant professor and McKnight Land-Grant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. My research group primarily studies the types of eclipsing binary stars, observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, that masquerade as transiting exoplanet systems. We apply inverse-modeling and parameter-estimation techniques to a combination of ground- and space-based observations to probe stellar physics across (and, more recently, beyond) the main sequence.

I serve as UMD's lead affiliate representative to the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium, which provides funding to undergraduate student-researchers in STEM, to the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium, and to the Bulldog Rocketry club.  I am also helping to renovate UMD's observatory to become capable of transiting exoplanet and EB follow-up.

I usually teach a mix of introductory physics and astronomy courses, as well as the Stellar Astrophysics course (PHYS 3561/5561).

I previously served as an assistant research professor (2021-22) and Eberly Research Fellow (2018-21) in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the Pennsylvania State University.  I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Astronomy at The Ohio State University in 2018 and my B.A. in mathematics and physics with a concentration in astronomy from Northwestern University in 2012.