About Me
I'm an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, primarily working in high-energy astrophysics. I am
involved with multiple X-ray observatories, and try to maintain a
broad perspective regarding science priorities in astrophysics and
their impact on mission requirements and capabilities. My research
focuses on processes in the interstellar medium and on maintaining
an atomic database (AtomDB) that
is used throughout the field to model the spectra of hot collisional
plasmas.
Education: In 1991, I received my B.S. in
Mathematics and Physics from Carnegie
Mellon University. I then went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I
worked with the Space
Physics group and my advisor, Dr. Don Cox. I received my Ph.D in
1997 after writing a thesis titled
"Modeling the Soft X-Ray Background with Multiple Supernovae".
Present Position: Associate Director - Science and Senior Astrophysicist, Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory