Research interests: Galactic dynamics; radiation transport; time-domain and multi-messenger astronomy; machine learning.

Precision Lab for Dark Matter: My current research is focused on developing techniques for precision measurements of dark matter. We are using extreme-precision radial velocity observations (ESPRESSO on the VLT), pulsar timing (from NANOGrav), and of eclipsing binary stars (with HST and HiPERCAM), to develop time-series precision measurements of the accelerations of stars, which gives the most direct probe of the mass distributions in galaxies. These recent measurements now enable the new, highly interdisciplinary field of “real-time” Galactic dynamics that brings together the exoplanet community, researchers in compact objects and eclipsing binaries, and in traditional Galactic dynamics.  

Recent papers on direct acceleration measurements: 

Constraints on a dark matter sub-halo near the Sun from pulsar timing https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXiv250716932C/abstract 

Empirical modeling of magnetic braking in millisecond pulsars to measure the local dark matter density and effects of orbiting satellite galaxies  https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025PhRvD.111j3036D/abstract 

Galactic structure from binary pulsar accelerations:  Beyond smooth models  https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024PhRvD.110b3026D/abstract

Eclipse timing : https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022ApJ...928L..17C/abstract 

Pulsar timing measurement: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ApJ...907L..26C/abstract

Extreme precision radial velocity observations: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020ApJ...902L..28C/abstract

Joint constraints from tidal streams and pulsar timing: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022arXiv221100613C/abstract