I am fortunate to work with many wonderful students working on a variety of topics. This website is an overview (and brag sheet!) for many of their projects & accomplishments. These include long-term projects, as well as summer or short-term efforts.

Student Collaborations

2023-2024 Projects

Lupita Tovar Mendoza (UW): Flare temperatures in TESS & Kepler

Anastasios (Andy) Tzanidakis (UW): Looking for Boyajian’s Star analogs in surveys.

Jessica Birky (UW): (with Prof. Rory Barnes) Tidal synchronization in binaries.

Tobin Wainer (UW): Flare activity variations in Kepler & TESS

Tom Wagg (UW): Flare activity variations in the TESS CVZ

Valeria Hurtado (UW): Post-AGB candidates in WISE

Francisca Chabour Barra (UW): “Sequence Dispersion Minimization” (repo)

Riley Clark (UDel): (with Prof. Federica Bianco) DCR & Flares in LSST (REPO)

2022-2023 Projects

Lupita Tovar Mendoza (UW): Flare temperatures in TESS & Kepler

Tyler Gordon (UW): Starspots & GPs

Jessica Birky (UW): (with Prof. Rory Barnes) Tidal synchronization in binaries.

Anastasios (Andy) Tzanidakis (UW): Looking for long eclipses with Gaia (REPO)

Tobin Wainer (UW): Flare activity variations in TESS

Valeria Hurtado (UW): Searching Gaia and WISE for Post-AGB stars

Josue Torres-Valdovinos (UW): Data reduction and testing with PyKOSMOS

Riley Clark (UDel): (with Prof. Federica Bianco) DCR & Flares in LSST (REPO)

Anna Baum (Lehigh): (with Prof. Joshua Pepper) Changing Inclination Eclipsing Binaries in TESS and KELT

Andy Nilipour (Yale): (with Steve Croft) Searching the SETI Ellipsoid with Gaia DR3 (REPO)

2021-2022 Projects

Lupita Tovar Mendoza (UW): (NSF GRFP Fellow) Flare morphology and flare temperatures in TESS & Kepler

Tyler Gordon (UW): Starspots & GPs

Jessica Birky (UW): (NSF GRFP Fellow) (with Prof. Rory Barnes) Studying tidal synchronization in binaries.

Anastasios (Andy) Tzanidakis (UW): Looking for long eclipses with Gaia (REPO)

Andrew Carr (UW): UW Meteor Camera project

Josue Torres-Valdovinos (UW): Data reduction and testing with PyKOSMOS (DiRAC Summer Research Prize winner)

Peter Gwartney (UW): (with Jessica Birkey & Tyler Gordon) studying eclipsing binaries in open clusters with TESS. (DiRAC Summer Research Prize winner)

Rachel Wong (UW): (with Tyler Gordon and Jessica Birkey) studying rotating stars in open clusters with TESS

Riley Clark (UDel): (with Prof. Federica Bianco) DCR & Flares in LSST (REPO)

Anna Baum (Lehigh): (with Prof. Joshua Pepper) Changing Inclination Eclipsing Binaries

Erin Howard (WWU): (with Prof. Kevin Covey) Eclipsing Binaries in TESS. (NSF GRFP Honorable Mention)

Bárbara Cabrales (Smith) : (with Dr. Sofia Sheikh) Searching the SETI Ellipsoid with TESS

Anna Zuckerman (Brown): Searching for “missing transits” with Kepler. (NSF GRFP Awarded)

Tien Nguyen (Agnes Scott College) : (with Howard Isaacson) Anomalous Lines in APOGEE Spectra (ALIAS) (REPO, REPO)

Andy Nilipour (Yale): (with Steve Croft) Searching the SETI Ellipsoid with Gaia DR3 (REPO)

2020-2021 Projects

The year of Zoom…

Lupita Tovar Mendoza (UW): (NSF GRFP Fellow) Developing a new flare template with Kepler and TESS

Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein (UW): Time domain variability of massive stars with WISE (PAPER)

Tyler Gordon (UW): Stellar Rotation Periods in K2 & TESS using Gaussian Processes. (PAPER)

Jessica Birky (UW): (NSF GRFP Fellow) (with Prof. Rory Barnes) Studying tidal synchronization in binaries. Searching for EBs in TESS open clusters.

Spencer Wallace (UW): GKM Superflares in TESS.

Erin Howard (WWU): DREU summer 2021 project on Eclipsing Binaries in TESS

Jaide Swanson (UW): (with Dr. Keaton Bell) Calibrating the “crowdedness factor” for TESS with eclipsing bianries.

Bárbara Cabrales (Smith): (with Dr. Sofia Sheikh) Breakthrough Listen summer 2021 intern, exploring the SETI Ellipsoid with TESS

Anna Zuckerman (Brown): Summer 2021 postbac, (with Steve Croft, Breakthrough Listen), searching for “missing transits” with Kepler.

Peter Gwartney (UW): (with Jessica Birkey & Tyler Gordon) studying eclipsing binaries in open clusters with TESS.

Rachel Wong (UW): (with Tyler Gordon and Jessica Birkey) studying rotating stars in open clusters with TESS

2019-2020 Projects

Erin Howard (WWU): DREU Summer 2020 Project on Eclipsing Binaries in TESS

Lupita Tovar Mendoza (UW): (NSF GRFP Fellow) Flare morphology versus spectral type. (Repo) Co-author on paper “10 Years of Stellar Activity for GJ 1243”

Jessica Birky (UW): (NSF GRFP Fellow) Eclipsing Binaries in TESS. (Repo) AAS 235 Poster

Courtney Klein (UCI): Flares in ZTF (co-mentor with Eric Bellm). AAS 235 Poster

Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein (UW): Time domain variability of massive stars with TESS & WISE.

Tyler Gordon (UW): Stellar Rotation Periods in K2 & TESS using Gaussian Processes. AAS 235 Talk

Spencer Wallace (UW): GKM Superflares in TESS.

Karen Warmbein: Looking for long duration dippers in ZTF data (Repo)

Hendrik Venter (UW): Exploring stumpy for analyzing Kepler light curve variability (repo)

2018-2019 Projects

Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein (UW): Time domain variability of massive stars with TESS. (Paper) (Repo). Co-author on Research Note “Photometric Metallicities for Low-mass Stars with Gaia and WISE”

Lupita Tovar Mendoza (UW): Flare morphology versus spectral type. (Repo)

David Fleming (UW): Binary Star Rotation & Tides. (Paper)

Tyler Gordon (UW): Stellar Rotation Periods in K2 using Gaussian Processes. Related: NASA ADAP 2017

Spencer Wallace (UW): GKM Superflares in TESS Cycle 1. Related: TESS GO11264

Courtney Klein (UW): Flares in ZTF (co-mentor with Eric Bellm) (Repo). NSF GRFP 2019 recipient

Sam Quist (UW): Rotation Periods in K2 stars (Sam is now a graduate student at UBC)

Matthew Scoggins (WWU): Searching for variations in flare rates in Kepler stars. (Repo). (RNAAS Article) (Matt is now a graduate student at Columbia University)

2017-2018 Projects

Riley Clarke (WWU): Flare Activity of Wide Binary Stars with Kepler (Paper published in ApJ!). Co-author on “The GALEX View of Boyajian’s Star”. Characterizing Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in stellar flares using a Gaussian Process (repo). Riley is now a grad student at the University of Delaware

Zachery Laycock (WWU): Studying the optical and NUV variability of EK Dra with a 35 year light curve. Co-author on paper “The GALEX View of Boyajian’s Star”.

Matthew Scoggins (WWU): Searching for variations in flare rates in Kepler stars.

Zoë Bell (HMC): Rotation Periods in K2 stars (Summer student project, AAS 233 Poster)

Michael Puig-Holzman (UW): Measuring rotation periods in K2 stars

Jamel Adilia (UW): Searching for rotation periods from eclipsing binaries in OGLE.

2016-2017 Projects

Riley Clarke presenting his work at WWU Scholars Week 2017

Riley Clarke (WWU): Flare rates from wide binary stars in the Kepler field. Outstanding Poster Award, WWU 2017 Scholars Week.

Zachery Laycock (WWU): Searching for stellar activity variations in Mt Wilson stars with GALEX.

2015-2016 Projects

My 2016 student collaborators and me after their excellent Scholar’s Week presentation

Austin Boeck (WWU): Searching for connection between flares, starspots, and photometric flicker with Kepler.

Jonathan Cornet (WWU): Comparing flare rates between stars in Kepler.

Riley Clarke (WWU): Flare rates from wide binary stars in the Kepler field.

Past Student Collaborations

An almost-complete list of graduate and undergraduate students I advised during graduate school

John Lurie (UW): 2015-2017, Paper: Flares & Starspots on GJ 1245AB, Paper: Tidal Synchronization of Binary Stars

Tessa Wilkenson (UW): 2013 - 2015

Collin Kielty (UW): 2012 - 2014

Tiffany Lin (UW): 2012

Keaton Bell (UW): 2011, Paper: Active M Dwarf Variability

Meagan Albright (UW): 2011

Meghin Spencer (UW): 2011

Michelle Vick (HMC): 2011