About

I am a physical chemist interested in using fundamental laboratory studies to inform and contribute to a wide range of applied fields, including atmospheric chemistry, planetary science, biophysics, and astrobiology.

I was raised in Sheridan, WY, at the base of the beautiful Bighorn Mountains. I graduated from Dartmouth College in 2012 with an A.B. in Chemistry. While at Dartmouth, I worked with Prof. Dean Wilcox, studying metal-protein binding interactions using isothermal titration calorimetry.

I completed my PhD in 2017 at the University of Colorado Boulder under the supervision of Prof. Veronica Vaida. My thesis work focused primarily on detailed mechanistic studies of the photochemistry of organic species in the aqueous phase under conditions relevant to both the modern and early Earth using mass spectrometry. I also characterized the surface activity and aggregation behavior of simple lipids and their photochemical products using a number of analytical techniques, including Langmuir troughs, dynamic light scattering, and optical microscopy.

As a post-doc at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab working with Dr. Kevin Wilson, I have moved from the bulk to droplets. Using both micron-sized droplets and submicron aerosol, I explore the kinetics of condensed-phase reactions in confinement.