University of Arizona

Arizona Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (ALES)

Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI)

University of Arizona

Sonoma Technologies Inc.

UC Berkeley

Advisor: Josh Eisner

Committee: Josh Eisner, Dan Marrone, Kaitlin Kratter, Laird Close, George Rieke

Dissertation: Constraining the Initial Conditions and Final Outcomes of Accretion Processes Around Young Stars and Supermassive Black Holes

Advisor: Josh Bloom

How do planets form and evolve? To answer this question I conduct surveys to better understand the shape of the galactic planet population. I also conduct detailed spectroscopic observations of known systems to probe planet composition.

Planets form from the dust, ice, and gas that make up protoplanetary disks, but the details of the process remain largely unconstrained by observations. My work utilizes powerful high-resolution techniques to study disks in detail, including adaptive optics-fed echelle spectroscopy and long-baseline infrared interferometry.

Sgr A* ---the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy--- is the closest example of a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus. My work includes developing strategies to improve astrometric monitoring of the stars whose winds feed the black hole accretion flow, as well as statistical analysis of time-variable submillimeter emission to help constrain the physical processes giving rise to the variability.

I develop instrumentation that will facilitate transformative discoveries in the study of planet formation. In particular, I work with thermal and mid-IR instruments that operate at the wavelengths where relatively cool exoplanets and warm circumplanetary material peak in flux. I am leading the effort to build a new, more sensitive, fringe tracker for LBTI which will facilitate direct probes of the planet formation process at 5 AU from stars in the Taurus star forming region.

Organized by the UA Astro grad council and the Tucson Women in Astronomy to provide support for graduate students. I currently mentor two UA grads.

This program competitively selects both interns and advisors to work on projects related to space science. One of the goals of the program is "To recruit and train professionals, especially women and underrepresented minorities, for careers in aerospace science, technology, and allied fields". Importantly, this program pays undergraduate interns, helping students create the space necessary to explore science as a job.

Zack is writing his thesis using ALES, the LBTI thermal-infrared integral field spectrograph instrument that I lead as Project Scientist.

The CAMPARE program provides paid summer research internships to undergraduates from minority serving institutions.

Stars

Origin of the Solar System and Other Planetary Systems

Great Debates in Astronomy

Stars