---

Summary

I’m a post doc at DESY Zeuthen and a member of the H.E.S.S. collaboration. Within H.E.S.S., I was until February 2023 recently the leader of the Data Acquisition System (DAQ) and Computing group, and the Gamma-ray Burst group. I took parental leave from February 2023 to January 2024.

My background is in data analysis on and observations of gamma rays (Fermi, H.E.S.S.) and gravitational waves (LIGO). I work on astrophysical phenomena related to stellar-mass compact objects: gamma-ray bursts and compact object mergers, isolated Galactic neutron stars and black holes.

Education and Professional Career

Post doc, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen, Germany | 2019 — present
Post doc, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI), Hannover, Germany | 2015 — 2019
Ph.D., Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, USA and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA | 2007 — 2015
Bachelor of Science, Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA | 2003 — 2007

Teaching

Lecturer, gravitational-wave astronomy, DESY Ukraine Winter School, Zeuthen, Germany | 02/2023
Lecturer, transient and continuous gravitational waves, ICTP-SAIFR School on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, São Paulo, Brazil | 12/2018
Lecturer, the astrophysics of stellar-mass and supermassive compact objects, IMPRS Lecture Week, Mardorf, Germany | 07/2018
Python instructor, University of Maryland Physics Summer Girls Program, College Park, Maryland, USA | 08/2015
Python instructor, GRAD-MAP Winter Workshop, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA | 01/2015
Python instructor, Goddard python bootcamp, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA | 2013 — 2015
Teaching assistant, Introduction to Physics course and lab, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA | 2008
Teaching assistant, Electricity and Magnetism lab, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA | 2007
Staff, physics help room, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA | 2006 — 2007
Tutor, physics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA | 2005 — 2007

Awards

H.E.S.S. prize for outstanding service contributions to the experiment | 06/2022
Physical Review D “Kaleidoscopes” selection for figure from B.P. Abbott et al. (2017) | 12/2017
Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Workshop (GWPAW) poster prize | 05/2017
Physical Review D “Kaleidoscopes” selection for figure from B.P. Abbott et al. (2016) | 11/2016
Graduate Research Interaction Day poster prize, University of Maryland, College Park, USA | 04/2013
Meyers and Friends of Physics scholarship, University of Maryland, College Park, USA | 05/2010

Outreach and Science Communication

Presenter of “About Gamma-Ray Bursts and Boats,” a public talk on GRB 221009A at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress | 12/2023
Interviewed for a Quanta magazine article on GRB 190829A | 06/2021
Interviewed for a VICE magazine article on GRB 190829A | 06/2021
Interviewed for a New Scientist (Netherlands) article on GRB 190829A | 06/2021
Creator of the sonification of GRBs for an upcoming cosmology series for Wall to Wall production company | 10/2020
Writer of “Art: Audible, Visual, Edible Gamma-ray Bursts,” part of the “Fermi Friday” sequence celebrating ten years of Fermi operations | 08/2018
Presenter of “Art & the Cosmos,” a showcase of art and music inspired by astronomy at sevenminusseven art studio, St. Thomas, USVI | 06/2017
Presenter of “What does data look like?”, a presentation of “GRB Suite,” George Mason University Observatory, USA | 11/2014
Co-creator (sound) of “GRB Suite,” a data sonification and visual experience of four Fermi gamma-ray bursts | 2014
Interviewed for a Science Magazine podcast episode on gamma-ray bursts | 11/2013
Panel member in a NASA public teleconference on the GRB 130427A | 11/2013
Co-creator (sound) of “GRB 080916 music,” a data sonification of a Fermi gamma-ray burst | 2012

Invited talks

Plenary talk on the extraordinary GRB 221009A, Annual Meeting of the German Astronomical Society, Berlin, Germany | 09/2023
Plenary talk on Very High Energy observations of gamma-ray bursts, Tenth Fermi Symposium, Johannesburg, South Africa | 10/2022
Seminar on Very High Energy detections of gamma-ray bursts (remote), Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, Poland | 01/2022
Scientific highlight talk on GRB 190829A, DESY Science Day 2021, DESY, Hamburg, Germany | 11/2021
Presentation on the H.E.S.S. gamma-ray burst program (remote), Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany | 08/2021
Presentation on the H.E.S.S. gamma-ray burst program at the Sixteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting (remote)| 07/2021
Seminar on the H.E.S.S. observations of GRB 190829A (remote), Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel | 06/2021
Seminar on Very High Energy detections of gamma-ray bursts (remote), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA | 03/2021
Seminar on prospects fo detecting axions with continuous gravitational-wave searches (remote), Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium | 10/2020
Presentation on prospects for detecting axions with continuous gravitational-wave searches (remote), “Fuzzy Dark Matter” workshop, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany | 07/2020
Seminar on prospects for detecting axions with continuous gravitational-wave searches (remote), Toyama University, Toyama, Japan | 04/2020
Colloquium on recent gamma-ray bursts at Very High Energies, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain | 02/2020
Colloquium on recent gamma-ray bursts at Very High Energies, DESY, Zeuthen, Germany | 11/2019
Seminar on continuous gravitational-wave searches for axion annihilations, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan | 10/2019
Seminar on searches for gravitational waves from neutron stars and black holes, DESY, Zeuthen, Germany | 01/2019
Seminar on gravitational waves from axion clouds, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada | 12/2018
Presentation on continuous gravitational-wave searches, “Searching for New Particles with Black Hole Superradiance” workshop, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada | 04/2018
Seminar on high-energy observations of gamma-ray bursts with precursors, AEI, Hannover, Germany | 03/2015