Research Interests
My research interest is in understanding the formation of the nuclei of galaxies - I'm currently studying the composition and star formation history of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster and how these stars interact with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. I also use the orbits of these stars to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity around our supermassive black hole. I'm also interested in the dynamics of nearby Milky Way dwarf galaxies and how we can use them to study cosmology. I am primarily an observer, using both space-based telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and adaptive optics on ground-based telescopes like the Keck Telescopes and Gemini to obtain precise photometry and kinematics. I have also been working on a data simulator and science cases for the Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for the future Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).