Research
Interests: Exoplanets, Observations, Atmospheric Characterization,
Ultra-hot Jupiters, Phase Curves, Secondary Eclipses, Exoplanet Mapping,
Open-Source Data Reduction Pipelines, Reflected Light, High-Precision Polarimetry
Overview
Welcome to my academic webpage! As of September 2021, I am a BAERI
Postdoc at NASA Ames where I am
working with Thomas Greene and many others on JWST Guaranteed Time
Observations with the MIRI and NIRCam instruments. My focus is on the optimal
reduction and decorrelation of our team's observations to provide precise
measurements of exoplanetary atmospheres with a focus on planets smaller
and cooler than those typically observed by Hubble or Spitzer.
I am also co-leading the publication of the MIRI/LRS phase curve of WASP-43b
collected as a part of The JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release
Science Program.
Previously, I was a Ph.D. student in the Department of
Physics at McGill University. My supervisors were
Nicolas Cowan from McGill
University and
Pierre Bastien from Université de Montréal. My
Ph.D. research focused on the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres,
with a focus on ultra-hot Jupiters. Throughout my degree, I made use
of data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope
to study hot Jupiter atmospheres. I also dabbled with modelling the
atmospheres of highly-irradiated exoplanets. One of my other
projects used the newly comissioned POMM at the
Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic
to study the polarization of light reflected by known hot Jupiters.
I received a B.Sc. Honours in Physics at the University of Saskatchewan
in 2016, specializing in astronomy. In the summer of 2014, my first
NSERC USRA project at McMaster University under the supervision of
Doug Welch and
Alison Sills aimed to create
a modern, uniform catalogue of variable stars in Milky Way
globular clusters. My second NSERC USRA at the University
of Toronto was supervised by Howard Yee and
Allison Noble.
In this project, I studied the effect of environmental density and galactic
stellar mass on the star formation rate of z~1 galaxies. My undergraduate
research project, supervised by
Doug Welch, tried to
find evidence of binarity in Type II Cepheid variable stars in Milky Way
globular clusters.
Exoplanet Characterization
A Comprehensive Reanalysis of Spitzer Phase Curves
Spitzer/IRAC observations are affected by strong detector
systematics which can be larger than the astrophysical signals we
seek to measure. Historically there has been significant disagreement
as to which detector model is best able to cleanly remove the
systematic noise present in phase curve observations, with each
research group having their own preferred technique and software.
In this work, we seek to resolve this conflict through a uniform
reanalysis of previously published Spitzer/IRAC phase
curves with many different detector models.
Read the Blog Post
Mass Loss From the Ultra-Hot Jupiter WASP-12b
Previous Spitzer/IRAC phase curve observations of WASP-12b
showed a feature never seen before at infrared wavelengths. While
phase curve observations typically have just a single peak per orbit,
the phase curve of WASP-12b was double-peaked at one wavelength of
light but single peaked at another wavelength. In this work, I
analyzed a repeated set of observations which show that this finding
is reproducible. After considering many possible explanations as to
the source of this double-peaked phase curve, we conclude that the
most likely scenario is that we are seeing carbon monoxide emission
from a stream of gas stripped from the planet's atmosphere.
Read the Blog Post
A Latent Heat Analogue on Ultra-Hot Jupiters
Hot Jupiters are believed to have rotation periods which match their
orbital periods (called synchronously rotating: a special form of
tidal locking). This gives the planets a permanent dayside and a
permanent nightside. Guided by the second law of thermodynamics, the
atmospheres of exoplanets tend to redistribute heat from the hot
daysides of these planets to the far colder nightsides through
winds. It is typically expected that hotter planets will have colder
nightsides as the winds become less efficient at transporting heat at
higher temperatures. In this work, I describe a previously unaccounted
for effect which increases the heat transport efficiency of winds in
the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters: the thermal dissociation of
molecular hydrogen.
Read the Blog Post
WASP-12b Secondary Eclipse Observation
An international team of researchers which I led analyzed new
Hubble observations of WASP-12b to search for light
reflected by the gas giant exoplanet. These observations show that
little-to-no light is reflected at optical wavelengths which tells us
that the planet would look as dark as fresh asphalt or charcoal,
if we could take a look at it. This provides interesting insight
into the atmospheric conditions of the planet's exceedingly hot
dayside.
Read the Blog Post
Globular Clusters & Variable Stars
To test theories of Type II Cepheid formation, I studied the spatial
distribution of these pulsating stars within the best-studied Milky
Way Globular clusters to determine whether or not there is evidence
that they are frequently found orbiting another star within a binary
system.
Read the Blog Post
Star Formation in z~1 Galaxy Clusters
How does the star formation rate of galaxies depend on their stellar
mass and the density of their environment? To answer this question
and study the evolution of galaxy clusters, I analyzed 8 billion
year old photons collected by the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Read the Blog Post