Entity

Astronomy and Astrophysics and Astrobiology

I work with Prof. Jason Wright as a 5th-year graduate student in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department at Penn State University, working towards a PhD with a dual title in Astrobiology. My research primarily focuses on radio SETI and exoplanet science. My SETI interests are in proof of concept search techniques and analysis of high frequency resolution radio data to look for narrowband signals of non-anthropogenic origins, distinct from known astrophysical phenomenon and indicative of technologically produced emission. My exoplanet science centers on characterizing the dusty effluents of a disitegrating exoplanet using JWST's MIRI instrument to conduct mid-IR transmission spectroscopy of K2-22b. The aim of this research is to identify the building blocks of a terrestrial sized planet and gain a deeper understanding of the building blocks of rocky worlds in service of teasing out the possible substrates for life in the universe. I am also a 2025 NASA ExoExplorer, and a Visiting Graduate Research Fellow at IPAC. I am currently working with Aurora Kesseli on high-resolution KPF data from Keck to characterize the atmospheric composition of a hot-jupiter using transmission spectroscopy.

Affiliations:
The Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence (PSETI) Center
The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds (CEHW)
The Astrobiology Research Center

(Last updated January 2025)

Exoplanet Research

K2-22b: A Disintegrating Exoplanet with JWST

Using the MIRI LRS instrument on JWST we observed 4 predicted transits of K2-22b. This project uses transmission spectroscopy to determine the composition of the dust cloud around this disintegrating exoplanet and ultimately measure the interior composition of a terrestrial planet around a main sequence star for the first time! Observations were taken in April 2024.
Paper submitted to ApJ Letters and the arXiv in January 2025.
The thumbnail image is a MIRI verification image. In the embedded picture, the bottom left simulation is from the discovery paper (Sanchis-Ojeda et al. 2015) and the top left plot is a recreation of the K2 lightcurve. The plot on the right is the main results figure from our paper.

AAS #245 Press Briefing on K2-22b

At the 2025 Winter AAS Meeting in National Harbor, MD, I gave a press briefing on the results of our JWST observations of K2-22b! Clicking the video will show the recorded livestream video of the press briefing, with my ~6 minute talk starting at 35:39, followed by questions for the entire panel.
Additionally, we wrote up our own press release document for the event in coordination with our colleagues at MIT who were reporting on a new TESS discovery of a similarly disintegrating exoplanet! (Watch Marc Hon's talk right before mine in the press briefing and check out his paper)

SETI Research

SETI during PPOs in TRAPPIST-1 with ATA

Searching for narrowband transmission in observations of TRAPPIST-1 with the ATA, with particular focus on planet-planet occultation events.
Paper published in AJ and on arXiv in September 2024.
The embedded gif is a simulation I created showing the orbital configuration of the TRAPPIST-1 planets during the observations we took for this search.

SETI at the Solar Gravitational Lens Focal Region

A proof of concept experiment for a new search strategy conducted by the Fall 2020 Graduate SETI class.
Paper published in AJ and on arXiv in August 2022.
The thumbnail image is a conceptual rendering by Dani Zemba at Penn State