Research Summary
University of Kansas
During my second year studying at the University of Kansas, I began conducting research under Dr. Gregory Rudnick as a member of KU’s Galaxy Group. From 2024-2025, I worked with a fellow undergraduate and collaborated with Dr. John Moustakas from Siena University to develop a Zooniverse civilian science platform designed to improve the quality and accuracy of the upcoming 2025 Siena Galaxy Atlas catalog of large galaxies and the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey’s Data Release 11, a follow-up to the 2020 SGA catalog [1]. The platform allowed a large audience to visually inspect images of SGA galaxies and estimate morphological centers and galaxy orientations to feed into the automated catalog software. These initial estimates are crucial because automated routines struggle with large nearby galaxies. I played a key role in enabling students to contribute to the project, despite them not being experts in extragalactic astronomy. In March 2025, I presented this work to the DESI/Legacy Survey Imaging team and convinced them to contribute to this platform. Collaborating with a partner and handling all volunteer communication strengthened my teamwork and communication abilities. Along with this work, in fall 2025 I began a research project using archival Herschel far-infrared photometry of galaxies within the Virgo Filament Survey to determine gas and dust contents in galaxies as a function of position within the galaxy. By coupling these measurements with co-spatial SFR measures, I will estimate gas depletion timescales and search for signs that galaxy environment modifies the way galaxies form stars.
Northwestern REU
In summer 2025 I won a highly competitive Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) position at Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). Under Dr. Allison Strom and Dr. Tim Miller, I investigated the connections between the emission line spectra of high redshift galaxies and their morphological properties in order to test correlations between the gas properties of HII regions and galaxy structure. This involved reducing and analyzing recent JWST spectroscopic data, creating emission line ratio diagrams, and connecting the gas composition of galaxies with their morphological properties. My work showed a correlation between the electron density of HII regions and the size of galaxies at a fixed mass. I gained invaluable skills in astronomical database usage, spectroscopy, python coding, and writing research summaries. A series of REU workshops further improved my scientific communication skills and taught me to create a personal research website using GitHub. I presented this work in multiple formats, including a poster session for Northwestern faculty students, a Zoom talk for family and friends, and an invitation to present at the 2026 winter American Astronomical Society conference. In September 2025, I was invited to give a thirty minute presentation at KU’s astronomy seminar. I also gave a talk at the December 2025 Mid-American Regional Astrophysics Conference, hosted at the University of Missouri.
This research is described in further depth on the Northwestern REU page.
