My research interests are generally focused on gaining a better understanding of the environmental conditions that can give rise to and sustain the propagation of life. This encompasses various aspects of planet formation and evolution. For my thesis I am investigating, via theoretical and observational means, the thermal evolution of planetesimals in the early Solar System.
Li abundances
I am working to constrain the distribution of asteroids that show evidence of past partial melting (i.e. a surface with basaltic material) by discovering new V-type asteroids that are not dynamically associated with the Vestoid family. The results of this spectroscopic survey have implications for understanding the past thermal history of Main Belt planetesimals, which in turn can help to establish a more robust relationship between asteroidal surface properties and the measured composition of meteorite samples.
I am developing a numerical model that will address the thermal evolution of planetesimal-sized rocky bodies during epochs of planet formation in the early Solar System. Ultimately this model will be used to make a statement about the time-scales over which water can be sequestered in the interior of such bodies. These results will have consequences for our understanding of the origin of water on Earth and the observed distribution of basaltic asteroids in the Main Belt.
Future space-based observatories like ESAs Darwin and NASAs Terrestrial Planet Finder will be capable of directly imaging extra-solar terrestrial planets. A great deal can be learned about these planets by measuring their orbital infrared and optical light curves. Along with Eric Gaidos (Univ. Hawaii) and Darren Williams (Penn. State) I am performing calculations of how physical properties such as obliquity, orbital inclination and the presence of a satellite can affect the measured light curve of a given planet. These simulations are relevant to the future determination of terrestrial exoplanet habitability.
Coming Summer 2007...
As an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara I worked with Kohl Gill and Mark Sherwin on a two year project to characterize single-electron charging of self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. Through extensive laboratory experiments we determined that a simple combination of applied AC voltage and incident photon pulses could achieve a loading and unloading of charge from these quantum dots. This work has implications for understanding the nature of quantum dots and how these structures may one day be used as the foundation of a quantum computer.
