About me

Hi! I’m a Ph.D. candidate of astrophysics at University of California, Santa Barbara, expected to graduate in June 2024. I’ve completed my Bachelor’s degree in physics at Carnegie Mellon University with high honors, and my Master’s degree at UCSB. Upon graduation, I aim to apply data mining, statistical analysis, machine learning, research, and programming skills to building models and finding
optimized solutions to real-world problems.

My research ranges from using deep learning models to estimate the masses of galaxy clusters to using statistical models and image processing to analyze exoplanets. My Ph.D. thesis in exoplanet research focuses on two main aspects:

1. The development and release of a data processing pipeline, pyKLIP-CHARIS, that reduces imaging data taken by the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS) on the Subaru telescope in Hawaii. I led the effort on distortion correction and spectrophotometric calibration of the instrument, as well as the integration of a novel Expectation Maximization Principal Component Analysis (EMPCA) algorithm into the pipeline.

2. The analysis of such reduced imaging data using image processing, statistical models, and simulations to extract scientific results and improve the scientific theory on exoplanets. I developed a novel model fitting algorithm that jointly fits the point-spread-functions (PSF) of blended sources that led to the most precise masses of imaged brown dwarfs ever at the time of publication, which provided vital insights to the theory of evolution for such celestial bodies. I also led the analyses of the first ever off-axis-tracking high contrast imaging data and the first ever simultaneous spectral-polarimetry data taken by an integral field spectrograph.

Outside of work, I have a wide range of hobbies including soccer, skiing, guitar, hiking & camping, video games and reading.