Students
Siena undergraduates are at the heart of my research. Students in my group work on real problems using data from DESI, the Legacy Surveys, and other surveys, through funded summer research, independent study, and senior capstone projects. Along the way they learn to use machine learning, advanced statistical methods, and other tools of modern data science, skills that carry well beyond astronomy. If you are a Siena student interested in joining, please get in touch.
Student research in the group has been supported by my grants from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation (see Research Support).
Grant-Funded Research
- DESI Steel Program: Spectroscopic Validation
- SGA-2025 Morphology Classification with Machine Learning
- SGA-2025 Catalog Assembly and Validation
Earlier projects
- Discovery of FeLoBAL Quasars in DESI
- Physical Properties of Virgo Filament Galaxies using DESI Spectroscopy
- Identifying the Most ‘Extreme’ Objects Observed by DESI
- Searching for FeLoBALs in DESI DR1
- Reconstructing DESI Galaxy Spectra using an Autoencoder
- Physical Properties of Local Hubble-Flow Tracer Galaxies
- Using DESI Data to Build Scientific Analytical Skills
- Cosmic Voids in DESI
- An Introduction to DESI Computational Tools
- Observing Local Galaxies with the Breyo Observatory
- Spectral Synthesis Modeling of DESI Spectroscopy
- Visualization Tools for DESI
- First Measurement of the Correlation Function from Survey Validation Data
- Physical Properties of the MaNGA Galaxy Sample
- Astronomy at the Frontier 2020
- A Visualization Tool for Large Galaxies
- Astrophysics Jupyter Notebooks for High School Students
- Confronting Simulations of Cluster Galaxies with Observations
- Stellar Mass Content of Dark Matter Halos
- Analyzing Illustris Simulations of Massive Central Galaxies
- A Django-based Web Application for Investigating Massive Central Galaxies
- X-ray and Optical Properties of Massive Galaxy Clusters
- An Accurate Census of the Stellar Mass Content of Massive Central Galaxies
- Stellar Masses of Massive Central Galaxies
- The Low Star Formation Efficiency in Dark Matter Halos
Siena Summer Scholars
- Star Formation in Virgo Filament Galaxies
- Improvements on a Gravity Battery Energy Storage Device
Earlier projects
- The Hunt for Planet 9
- Unveiling the Large Scale Structure of the Universe
- Using Known Knowns to Understand Known Unknowns and Identify Unknown Unknowns within DECaLS
- Using the Galaxy Correlation Function to Constrain Dark Matter
- Playing in the Galactic Sandbox
- Growing Galaxies in Massive Dark Matter Halos
- Machine Learning Based Selection of Emission Line Galaxies
- Investigating the Formation of Compact Spheroidal Galaxies
- Exploring the Nature of Dark Energy
- Assembly of the Most Massive Galaxies in the Universe
- Galaxy Formation at the Dawn of Time
Independent Study
- AI Assisted Discovery of Rare and Unusual Galaxies in SGA-2025
- Creating a Spectral Energy Distribution Atlas for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
- Siena Galaxy Atlas 2024
Earlier projects
- Ultrafast Spectral Energy Distribution Modeling of Galaxies using GPUs
- Exploring DESI Survey Data
- Constraining Dark Energy Using Measurements of Cosmic Voids From The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey
- Photometric Analysis of Nearby Galaxies
- Galactic Giants: Tracing the Stellar Mass Growth of the Most Massive Galaxies in the Universe
- High Redshift Galaxies in the Gravitationally Lensed Hubble Frontier Field Cluster Abell 2744
- Topics in Computational Astrophysics
Senior Capstone Research
- Measuring H₀ with Type Ia Supernovae
- Finding Spectroscopic Gravitational Lenses in DESI
- Investigating the Physical Conditions of Emission-Line Galaxies using DESI Spectroscopy
Earlier projects
- Star Explorer: A Natural Language Star Index
- Demonstrating Lenz's Law
- Cosmic Voids in DESI
- Spectral Synthesis Modeling of DESI Spectroscopy
- Finding Strong Gravitational Lenses in DESI Spectroscopy
- The Two-Point Correlation Function
- Extrasolar Planet Searches
- The Incidence of Dust-Obscured Star Formation in Nearby Galaxy Clusters