I am an astrophysics graduate student in the Physics and Astronomy department at the University of Louisville. My research interests are protoplanetary disks and extra-solar planets. I am currently working with Dr. Gerard Williger of the University of Louisville and Dr. Carol Grady of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

We are currently working with imagery and spectroscopy from Apache Point Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Gemini North and South observatories, and the VLT. Our current targets of interest are the Herbig Ae stars HD 169142 and HD 100453. Both stars are about 10 Myr old and have protoplanetary disks which are believed to be in the active planet forming phase of stellar evolution. Our research group website is here.

My work is supported by a graduate fellowship from the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium.

Below is my Master's Thesis Defense Presentation and the complete Master's Thesis.
The title of my work is "HD 100453: An Evolutionary Link Between Protoplanetary Disks and Debris Disks."

Master's Thesis Defense Presentation (22.5 MB pdf file).

Master's Thesis Defense Presentation (13.8 MB ppt file).

Master's Thesis (3.7 MB pdf file).