Current Projects:

I'm very interested in the application of Bayesian statistics in cosmology. I'm working on a project with students Benjamin Burner (WCU), Devin Crichton (UKZN), and Darell Moodley (UKZN), and Dr. Ravi Sheth to determine how well future observations could distinguish among different models of the cluster mass function. I received a WCU Global Development Collaborative (GDC) Grant for a student exchange with University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in the summer of 2009, through which Mr. Crichton and Mr. Moodley visited West Chester to work on this project. Preliminary results from our collaboration were presented in a poster at CosmoStats09 in late July.

I'm working on a project with Miguel Abele (Physics BS '11) and Dr. Kavilan Moodley to help determine the origin of the density profile of dark matter halos. As part of the GDC Grant, Mr. Abele visited UKZN to work with Dr. Moodley for three weeks in the summer of 2009. Mr. Abele was awarded a CAS Student Research Award for Spring 2008, and I received a CASSDA Research Grant (also for Spring 2008).

I'm also looking at new ways to constrain deviations from Newtonian gravity at megaparsec scales with Drs. Raul Jimenez and Licia Verde.

Alicia Derr (Physics BS '07) and I worked on visualizations of the abstract mathematical concepts of the two-point correlation function and the power spectrum in Spring 2007. Since Ms. Derr graduated, I'm looking for another interested student to resume work on this project.

Graduate Research Experience:

School of Mathematical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, February 2006

Theoretical cosmology. Advisor: Dr. Kavilan Moodley.

* Calculated signal from stacking Sunyaev-Zeldovich observations of low-mass clusters using optimal filtering.

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, May 2003-May 2006

Theoretical cosmology. Advisors: Drs. Licia Verde and Raul Jimenez.

* Demonstrated how stacking weak-lensing signals of galaxy clusters, based on their Sunyaev-Zeldovich decrement, can constrain cluster physics.

* Chose, generalized, and applied a nonparametric method (the smoothing spline) to reconstruct the primordial power spectrum.

* Tested gravity at megaparsec scales by deriving the matter power spectrum and bispectrum for small deviations from the inverse-square law, and comparing with large scale structure data.

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, May-August 2002

Theoretical cosmology. Advisors: Drs. Bhuvnesh Jain and Charles Alcock.

* Derived light curves for gravitational microlensing events in the presence of weak external shear.

Undergraduate Research Experience:

NASA/New York Space Grant Fellowship, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, June-August 2000

Theoretical astrophysics. Advisor: Dr. Dong Lai.

* Calculated hydrogen ionization fraction for a neutron star atmosphere, over a range of magnetic fields for which there are no good electron quantum numbers.

Newman Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics, Cornell University, January-May 2000

High-energy theory. Advisor: Dr. Phillip Argyres.

* Studied Plebanski’s demonstration that the Born-Infeld electromagnetic lagrangian is the only Lorentz-covarient lagrangian consistent with causality, with the aim to generalize the argument to higher dimensions.

NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship, University of Chicago, June-August 1999

Theoretical condensed matter physics. Advisor: Dr.Thomas A. Witten.

* Devised and applied new method to demonstrate the fractal nature of late stages of mineral growth.

Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory, Cornell University, June-July 1997

High-energy experiment. Advisor: Dr. Ritchie Patterson.

* Performed feasibility study for detecting an exotic B meson decay.

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