About Me
This is my research portfolio; please visit my media portfolio to learn more about my creative and science communication projects!
I am a final year physics PhD candidate working with Prof. Chris Rycroft, funded by the NASEM Ford Foundation Predoctoral, NSF Graduate Research, and Harvard Ashford fellowships.
My interests are broad; I want to understand how microscopic (dis)order gives rise to macroscopic observables. These days I'm interested in soft condensed matter questions regarding thin sheet dynamics, buckling instabilities, and mechanical properties. By combining simulations with theory from statistical physics, classical mechanics, and differential geometry, I explore fundamental physics that has potential applications in programmable materials, cell biology, computer animation, and industrial processes.
I am dedicated to making physics an equitable, inclusive, and accessible space for people from all backgrounds. To this end I co-founded and am President of A World of Women in STEM, an online learning space dedicated to celebrating past, present, and future women+ in STEM. I create science content for audiences of all ages, and am interested in grades 5-12 STEM education. Summaries of my work in these areas can be found on my scicomm, teaching, and outreach tabs. Besides doing physics, I like making coffee, taking portraits, going thrifting, and practicing my Indo-Dutch rijsttafel menu.
Research
Currently my research is simulating thin sheets and ribbons crumpled or deformed by external loading. Our computational model of thin sheets-- a mesh comprised of nodes connected by quadratic spring interactions-- replicates experimental observations and fulfills analytical predictions. Optimized for self-contact, custom sheet topologies, embedded defects, and myriad loading conditions, we are able to study the complex, dynamic processes relevant to the mechanical buckling, wrinkling, and crumpling transitions.
As an undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati I studied theoretical cosmology, focusing on dark matter candidates such as the axion and other axion-like particles. At low temperatures (such as in space), axions could condense in the same energy state and form cosmologically-sized Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) which then become gravitationally bound. I analyzed the stability of these axion BECs with and without external gravtitational perturbations, as well as the dynamics of an axion BEC's collapse from a dilute stable state to a denser state in which decay through various processes is likely. Papers related to these topics can be found on my publications tab.
