I use observations of resolved stars in nearby galaxies to study the processes that regulate galaxy evolution.

Recent News

October 31, 2022
My new preprint is out! We analyzed Keck/KCWI IFU spectroscopy of the only HII region in the 3% solar metallicity galaxy Leo P, which is ionized by just one extremely metal-poor O star.

October 13, 2022
I have been awarded a 2022-2023 Mistletoe Research Fellowship to work part-time on sustainability-focused technology development.

April 28, 2022
A new profile on what my work on the most metal-poor massive stars in nearby dwarf galaxies can teach us about the early universe was published in PNAS Front Matter!

Current Projects

FUV Spectra of Very Metal-Poor O Stars

I'm analyzing rare FUV spectra of main-sequence O stars in nearby, low-metallicity galaxies. This exploration of new parameter space has revealed weak stellar winds and high rotation speeds in the most metal-poor stars.
Paper I: arXiv | ApJ
Paper II: arXiv

How do starbursts shape dwarf galaxies?

I am PI of a HST program (AR-16155) to test the theoretical expectation that starbursts can alter the baryonic and dark matter distributions in the centers of local star-forming, gas-rich dwarf galaxies.

GLOW: Galaxies Losing Oxygen via Winds

I'm part of a team led by Prof. Kristen McQuinn studying how the fraction of metals that nearby dwarf galaxies lose in gaseous outflows scales with their mass. These will be the first such measurements in an unexplored mass regime and will provide valuable constraints for stellar feedback models.

Thesis Work

Mass-to-Light Ratios of Spatially Resolved Stellar Populations in M31

I studied the effects of dust and star formation history (SFH) on M*/L in M31. Recent SFH drives scatter in M*/L at fixed color in both the optical and mid-IR, and star-dust geometry affects the dependence of optical M*/L on color.
arXiv | ApJ

Spatially Resolved Metal Loss from M31

I constrained the metal mass that the large spiral galaxy M31 has lost via galactic outflows over its lifetime. Under any choice of uncertain model parameters, M31 cannot have held onto all the metals its stars have produced.
arXiv | ApJ

Exploring Systematic Effects in the Relation Between Stellar Mass, Gas Phase Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate

I investigated how sample selection and known biases in techniques for inferring Z and M* may change the apparent strength of correlations among galaxy properties.
arXiv | ApJ