Academic
I am a physics PhD student at Stanford University working on the DMRadio experiment in the group of Prof. Kent Irwin. DMRadio is a resonant dark matter detector searching for electromagnetically coupled wavelike dark matter, namely axions and hidden photons. As such, my interests primarily lie in beyond-the-standard-model physics but also in quantum sensors and cosmology. I am currently working on DMRadio-50L and DMRadio-m3 which will search for axions that are heavily motivated by pre-inflationary symmetry breaking scales. During my time at Stanford, I also spent some time at the Stanford Insitute for Theoretical Physics working on more phenomenological projects with Prof. Savas Dimopoulos.
I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019 with a bachelor's degree in Physics. My research mostly focused on dark matter axion physics as I worked with Prof. Karl van Bibber and was a member of the HAYSTAC collaboration. My experimental contributions revolved around designing, fabricating, and understanding the resonant microwave cavities that are used in the HAYSTAC experiment.
Personal
Apart from physics, most of my other interests lie in the German and Scandinavian arts, languages, and cultures. I particularly enjoy German music from the romantic period, especially works by Richard Wagner, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, and Richard Strauss, but also by the contemporary composer Jörg Widmann. I also deeply love the literary works of Thomas Mann, especially his novel The Magic Mountain.
I spend most evenings playing the piano. I had the privilege of studying with Professor Vinia Tsopela for several years who heavily influenced my appreciation for music. Here's a video of a fellow grad student and me playing the second movement of G. Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3.