Research

HISPEC

An upcoming diffraction-limited NIR spectrograph for Keck II, covering 0.98-2.46 μm (yJHK bands) at R ~ 100,000, with capabilities for EPRV, transit spectroscopy, and direct imaging. HISPEC is currently transitioning from the design phase to procurement and assembly, and is projected to ship in 2026. It is also the pathfinder instrument for MODHIS on the Thirty Meter Telescope.

• HISPEC White Paper

NEID

The new NN‑EXPLORE EPRV spectrograph on the WIYN 3.5m Telescope at Kitt Peak, which began full science operations in 2021. NEID covers the red‑optical from 380-930 nm at R ~ 110,000, with an instrumental RV error budget of 27 cm/s. I was heavily involved in spectrograph assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) — particularly the fiber optic feed — as well as instrument installation and commissioning.

• NEID @ WIYN

NEID Solar Feed

An auxiliary subsystem of NEID which uses an automated solar telescope to enable "Sun-as-a-star" RV observations during the day. I led the development of this project through a full design/build/test cycle. The NEID solar feed has amassed over 200,000 spectra which are publicly available on the NEID Solar Archive; these have already been used to compare solar RVs between EPRV instruments and test stellar activity mitigation techniques.

• NEID Solar Feed Paper

SNEAK: Searching for Nearby Exoplanets Around K‑dwarfs

I am the PI of the SNEAK program on NEID, a 3‑year blind RV survey searching for small planets (M < 10 M_Earth) around bright, nearby mid/late K‑dwarfs. K‑dwarfs typically exhibit lower RV jitter and larger planetary signals than G‑dwarfs, making it technically feasible to detect terrestrial planets in and around the Habitable Zone with current instrumentation, while also avoiding or mitigating many of the issues complicating M‑dwarf habitability.

GEMS: Giant Exoplanets around M‑dwarf Stars

I am part of the GEMS collaboration, which focuses on confirming TESS giant planet candidates around M‑dwarfs via ground-based transit photometry, optical and NIR RVs, and high-contrast imaging. We have confirmed many of the ~15 known M‑dwarf gas giants, and successfully proposed for JWST time to perform atmospheric characterization through GEMS‑JWST (Cycle 2 GO #3171).

Precision Ground‑Based Transit Photometry

I have also worked on achieving extremely high-precision ground-based photometry with Engineered Diffusers, which use microlenslets to shape the telescope point-spread function into a stable top‑hat, and narrowband filters designed to avoid atmospheric water absorption bands. Our team has used these technologies with the ARCTIC imager at Apache Point to recover ~1000 ppm transits from the ground, such as TOI‑1266c.