Education

Education:

  • Rochester Institute of Technology
    • Masters in Astrophysics: Projected Graduation Date - August 2022
    • PhD in Astrophysics: Projected Graduation Date - May 2025
  • West Virginia University: May 2020
    • Bachelor of Science in Physics
    • Minor in Mathematics

Research Interests: Radio Pulsars, Gravitational Waves, Pulsar Arrays, Machine Learning, High Performance Computing, FPGAs, Radio Telescope Arrays

Current Research

CLEAN Deconvolution of Pulsar Pulses

CLEAN deconvolution, as outlined in Bhat et. al. 2003 , can be employed to recover both the intrinsic pulse shape and pulse broadening function of pulsar radio emission as it travels through the interstellar medium. This work expands upon that done by Bhat et. al. by investigating how the pulse broadening time, the spectral index of the pulse broadening, the frequency of the observation, and the physical distance to the pulsar influences the pulse broadening function in an effort to recover the most accurate intrinsic pulse shape possible. These additions to the CLEAN method will provide valuable insight into the composition of the ISM along several lines of sight.

Publications

Refereed Publications:

  • Ranking Pulsar Plots using Coherence Measures. In prep.
  • GBTrans: A commensal search for radio pulses with the Green Bank twenty metre telescope. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, arXiv:1905.00980, Nov. 2019.
  • A Deep Targeted Search for Fast Radio Bursts from the Sites of Low-Redshift Short Gamma-Ray Bursts. The Astronomical Journal, arXiv:1909.11682, Sept. 2019.
  • Non-detection of fast radio bursts from six gamma-ray burst remnants with possible magnetar engines. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, arXiv:1908.10222, Aug. 2019.

Non Refereed Publications and Proposals:

  • Reprocessing of a Green Bank 43 m Telescope Survey of Unidentified Bright Radio Sources for Pulsars and Radio Bursts. Research Notes of the AAS. arXiv:2102.01132 , Feb. 2021
  • Observations of Pulsar J0030+0451 using the LWA1, Cycle 10 Proposal Call for the Long Wavelength Array. Proposal Accepted.
  • Real-time FPGA and GPU Algorithm for Transient Hunting on the Long Wavelength Array, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). Results Pending.

Other Publications:

  • Students provide perspective on opportunities available at Green Bank, NEURON: West Virginia’s Journal of Science and Research, Summer 2019, p.15
  • More 4-H Stories from the Heart, 2021

Link to my ADS publications list

Outreach

Conference for Undergraduate Women in Astronomy (CUWiA):

  • Co-founder, lead organizer, and Undergraduate Chair
  • Wrote funding and grant proposals for conference and reached out to sponsors, helping to secure $15,000 worth of funding.
  • Contacted and booked plenary speakers, including keynote speaker Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, panelists, and workshops.
  • Created and launched conference website and designed promotional media, along with exit survey.
  • Lead the formation of the first Conference for Undergraduate Women in Astronomy, reaching 60 students from 21 different universities across ten states.

Science Public Outreach Team (SPOT):

  • Personally reached 1,239 school children across the state of West Virginia with presentations and hands-on activities through classroom visits, STEM festivals, and science fairs.
  • Presentation topics included star and planet formation, Gravitational Waves, pulsar Astronomy, and clean water practices.

    • Background

    My Roots I grew up in the tiny town of Short Gap, West Virginia. We have a Dollar General, and most recently, a stop light. I was a member of the youth organization 4-H for ten years, which I attribute most of my success in my professional career to. During those ten years, I raised dairy goats, rescued horses, learned to run business meetings, pushed past my fear of public speaking, built robots, and raised meat animals for the county fair. These skills and experiences opened many doors for me. In highschool, I was a sitting member of the Allegany County Agricultural Extension Board and the county representative to the State 4-H Council. Moving into college, I was awarded several scholarships on both the county and state level through 4-H, and due to my 4-H public speaking experience, scholarships through the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for national level speaking competitions. Whether it be the more overarching skills of tenacity and problem solving, the specifically developed skills of leadership and presenting, or the financial ability to pursue a college education, my success as a scientist is due in a large part to my agricultural background.