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who am i?
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I'm an astrophyisics graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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current research interests:
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My paper exploring the orbit of the dwarf elliptical galaxy, NGC 205, about the Andromeda spiral galaxy using a genetic algorithm has been accepted for publication in the Aug 20th Astrophysical Journal edition. For more information, click here.
We've subsequently observed the compact elliptical galaxy, M32, and obtained kinematics of individual RGB stars in the galaxy. We are obtaining more observations this month at Keck and intend to perform a similar study to that done on NGC 205 after we measure it's semi-major axis velocity profile.
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recent news:
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I was awarded a prestigious Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Research Award (LSP). My thesis research will be carried out under the supervision of my UCSC advisor, Raja Guhathakurta, and David Dearborn at LLNL.
In January, I gave a talk at the 2008 AAS Conference in Austin on the results of my current research. To see the movie showing the evolution of the genetic algorithm and the N-body simulation of NGC 205's interation with M31, click here (requires Quicktime).
I served as the Internal Vice President for the Graduate Student Association (GSA) this past year. It was quite a rewarding, yet time consuming, experience!
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last updated 7-30-08
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