ABOUT

I am an observational astronomer and joined the UNC Department of Physics & Astronomy in 2024. Before that, I spent 11 years teaching and doing research with undergraduate physics majors at High Point University, where I worked as an Associate Professor of Astrophysics, Director of Culp Planetarium, and Co-Director of the Natural Sciences Fellows Program. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in physics from Mississippi State University in 2006 and my Ph.D. from UNC Chapel Hill in 2011. I also spent two years as a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State University.

Our stellar astrophysics research group focuses on objects located between the tip of the white dwarf cooling sequence and main sequence in the H-R diagram. Collectively referred to as hot subluminous stars, several types of objects have evolutionary tracks passing through or near this location, including pre-extremely low mass white dwarfs (pre-ELMs), core He-fusing hot subdwarf B (sdB) stars on the extended horizontal branch (EHB), post-EHB sdO/Bs, post-blue horizontal branch stars (post-BHBs), cataclysmic variables (CVs), subdwarf A stars (sdAs), and more. Essentially all hot subluminous stars share one common theme: binary interactions are necessary for their formation. Our group works on a variety of research projects that leverage this fact to gain insights into stellar evolution, Roche lobe overflow processes, common envelope ejection, and other interesting astrophysical phenomena. The broader impacts of this work touch on gravitational wave physics, Type 1a supernovae, the impact of late-stage stellar evolution on exoplanets, and more. Our group has also begun work to develop low-cost, low-resolution spectrographs to assist in these studies and follow-up observations of transients generated by the Argus array, Rubin’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and other photometric surveys.

If you’re a UNC-CH student who is interested in any of these topics, please contact me! We have projects available for both graduate and undergraduate students.