In August 2017, I co-discovered GW170817, the very first neutron star merger observation and one of the first multi-messenger astrophysical events captured. I contributed to the observation of the infrared lightcurve, which helped to prove, for the first time, that neutron star mergers are one site of the rapid neutron capture process.

The lava planet 55 Cnc e could host a number of atmospheres, or none at all. Using the MAROON-X spectrograph on Gemini-N, I worked to understand whether this planet more closely resembles Venus, Mercury, or something else entirely. I found that 55 Cnc e’s atmosphere, if it exists, must be very thin.

Spectroscopy’s greatest challenge is the successful extraction of the exoplanet’s spectrum from the star’s spectrum as well as the spectrum of the Earth’s atmosphere. Our new methods, outlined here, address the mitigation of minute continuum deviations and lead to better, more decisive detections of molecular species in exoplanet atmospheres.