Hello! I am a post-baccalaureate researcher with honors degrees in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Utah. I am pursuing a career in computational astrophysics and have a particular fascination for gravitation and black hole physics.
Research
Numerical Relativity
I study theoretical black hole physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, working in Dr. John Belz's numerical relativity group. I use numerical methods to explore "critical phenomena" occuring on the threshold of black hole formation. My work includes:
- Developing an advanced codebase for adaptively solving PDEs in axisymmetry.
- Adapting the Einstein Field Equations into forms suitable for numerical integration.
- Analyzing simulations of black hole collapse.
AGN and X-Ray Astronomy
I study active galactic nuclei in Dr. Daniel Wik's X-ray astrophysics research group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. I am work on constraining the compton thick fraction of AGN. This includes:
- Performing X-ray spectroscopic analysis on XMM-Newton observations of selected AGN in the JWST-North Ecliptic Pole field.
- Using Bayesian analysis to constrain column density values for these AGN.
Formal Verification
In my first two years at the University of Utah, I worked in the School of Computing in Dr. Anton Burtsev's systems programming research group. I focused on using SMT theorem provers to mathematically verify low-level microkernel code.
Showcase
I enjoy working on additional hobby projects related to astronomy, mathematics, and programming.
Realtime Rendering
I've implemented various photorealistic rendering algorithms from scratch in Rust and gathered them into a single application called stellar. This codebase supports relativistic raytracing, fractal raymarching, panoramic skyboxes, a post-processing pipeline, and physically-based star rendering.
