Research

       My current research involves building, testing, and characterizing NASA's balloon experiment, EXCLAIM. EXCLAIM is a far-infrared/sub-mm instrument that will contain six compact R~512 micro-spectrometers operating in 420-540 GHz range using a cryogenic telescope, and will utilize a large 1D array of thin-film Al kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). We will use EXCLAIM to perform line-intensity mapping (LIM) of CO and CII in redshifts spanning 0 < z < 3.5, and will locally produce resolved maps of CI in the Milky Way. I additionally am using velocity-resolved CII data from SOFIA's GREAT instrument, combined with rich auxillary data, to perform spectral convolution of the CII in the galaxy NGC 3627. My astronomy mainly focuses on examining the carbon-cycle in star- forming photodissociation regions (PDRs).

       I additionally work on kinetic inductance detector (KID) development, and observe with the Greenbank Telescope for the EDGE-CALIFA collaboration. I am advised by Alberto Bolatto (UMD), and Eric Switzer (NASA GSFC). I formerly worked on the pipeline and development of the SOFIA instrument HAWC+ at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and was fortunate enough to spend some time flying with the instrument.

Me at my station at the back of SOFIA, in front of HAWC+

Some of the HAWC+ Team (L-R): Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez (USRA/SOFIA), Al Harper (U of C), Carrie Volpert (me!), Ryan Hamilton (NASA/SOFIA)