B.S. 2000 UC Berkeley
B.S. 2000 UC Berkeley
Associate Professor of Physics
My research addresses fore front problems in stellar death astrophysics through extensive and panchromatic observations of various types of massive stellar explosions, specifically Gamma-Ray Bursts and Supernovae, which are among the most powerful explosions in the universe, as well as a growing class of exotic transients. With the goal of understanding their stellar progenitors and the explosion conditions that determine the fate of massive stars, I also study these stellar explosions' host environments and host galaxies, in particular the metallicities at the explosion sites, as a promising new tool for differentiating between various progenitor models. Astrophysics is entering the Golden Age of innovative time-domain surveys that stand to revolutionize our understanding of the transient sky. I'm part of the very successful and current Palomar Transient Factory (see PTF at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/ptf/ ), as well as the large-scale Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (see LSST at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/) planned for ~2016.