My Research

I am currently an associate scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, continuing my path in exoplanet studies with a concentration now on atmosphere characterization of exoplanets. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have been conducting an atmospheric analysis on planet L 98-59 c using the radiative transfer and retrieval tool Planetary Spectrum Generator (PSG). The additional data incoming from HST and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will enhance our efforts to find definitive detections of atmospheric absorbers. I will also be embarking on a new project focused on benchmarking the noise calculations within PSG with regards to three major telescopes: HST, JWST, and Nancy Grace Roman Telescope.

For my four years of undergraduate, I conducted research with Dr. Peter Plavchan in the realm of exoplanets. I participated in the NASA Probe Mission Concept Study EarthFinder, as one of the two researchers on the atmospheric impact team for the project. My work consisted of co-developing and running Python scripts to simulate the Doppler method of exoplanet detection, the impact of the atmosphere on our observed data (hereafter called tellurics), and common telluric mitigation techniques to quantify the error induced by tellurics on our ground-based exoplanet observations.

Initially I used a synthetic G star to do the runs for the EarthFinder study, but after the study concluded, I continued the project and reapplied the previously written scripts to a synthetic M-dwarf star to study the impact of size and temperature on telluric induced error in ground-based observations.

• Learn more