Curriculum Vitae

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Education

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
  Ph.D in Physics (Experimental Particle Physics), 2015.
  Thesis: A Model of the Directional Sensitivity of Low-Pressure CF₄ Dark Matter Detectors
  Advisers: Peter Fisher, Jocelyn Monroe (now at RHUL).


• Stanford University, Stanford, CA
  B.S. in Physics (with honors), 2009. Computer Science minor.
  Honors Thesis: Analysis of the effect of precise vertexing on τ polarization measurements in the SiD

Employment

• Research Assistant Professor   November 2022 -
  University of Chicago / Astronomy & Astrophysics / Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Chicago, Ill.
  Even more radiodetection of extremely high-energy neutrinos, plus some other things.


• Research Scientist   June 2020 - October 2022
  University of Chicago / EFI / Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Chicago, Ill.
  More radiodetection of extremely high-energy neutrinos!


• Postdoctoral Scholar / Associate Fellow    June 2015 - May 2020
  University of Chicago / Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Chicago, Ill.
  Radiodetection of extremely high-energy neutrinos (ANITA, ARA, GNO). On ANITA, I developed much of the analysis tools used for ANITA-III and ANITA-IV analysis and led an ANITA-III analysis, as well as contributions to operations, flight software, and calibration. For ARA, I wrote the data acquisition, transfer, processing and monitoring software for the phased array portion and am working on developing analysis tools. Much of that work has been ported to BEACON, a new mountain-top neutrino detector under development. For GNO I worked on data acquisition, data analysis, and simulations of the ice.


• Graduate Researcher    Fall 2009 - May 2015
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Cambridge, Mass.
  Development of a detector sensitive to the direction of dark matter recoils (DMTPC). Usually funded as a research assistant, but also occassionally a teaching assistant and supported by a Rossi Fellowship my first year. As one of only a few students working on DMTPC, I contributed heavily to hardware development, automation, monitoring, analysis tools, and simulation. My thesis evaluated the directional sensitivity of the detector technology, including all known effects, for the first time.
  


• Research Intern       June 2007 - June 2009
  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, Calif.
  Worked primarily on SiD tracking studies.

Conference Activity

• PPC 2022, St. Louis, Miss. Talk on RNO-G
• PANIC 2021, "Lisbon" (Virtual), Talk on ANITA
• Neutrino 2020, "Chicago, Ill." (Virtual), (Poster on PUEO)
• ICRC 2019, Madison, Wisc.. (Talk on ANITA)
• LLWI 2019, Lake Louise, Alberta. (Talk on RNO)
• CIPANP 2018, Palm Springs, Calif. (Talk on ANITA, Poster on antenna array)
• TeVPA 2017, Columbus, Ohio (Talk on ANITA)
• ICHEP 2016, Chicago, Ill. ( Overview Talk on ANITA, Poster on antenna array)
• ARENA 2016, Groningen, Netherlands ( Overview Talk on ANITA )
• Cygnus 2015, Los Angeles, Calif. ( Talk on DMTPC Directional Sensitivity )
• UCLA Dark Matter 2014, Los Angeles, Calif. ( Overview talk on DMTPC )
• TAUP 2013, Monterey, Calif. ( Overview talk on DMTPC )
• MIAMI 2012, Fort Lauderdale, Flor. ( Overview talk on DMTPC )

Seminars/Colloquia

• MSU HEP Colloquium, 2022 The exciting near-future of UHE neutrino detection with RNO-G and PUEO
• UNM Physics Colloquium (virtual), 2020 Exploring the UHE Universe with the ANITA
• UBC Physics Colloquium (virtual), 2020 Exploring the UHE Universe with the ANITA
• Northwestern/COFI Neutrino Seminar (virtual), 2020 Exploring the UHE Universe with the ANITA Long-Duration Balloon Payload
• KICP Friday Seminar, 2017 Radio-detection of Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos with the ANITA Long-Duration Balloon Payload
• UT-Arlington Physics Department Colloquium, 2017 Radio-detection of Ultra-High-Energy Neutrinos in Polar Ice
• UChicago HEP Lunch Talk, 2017

Workshop Activity

• Snowmass Community Summer Study, Seattle, WA 2022 (talk on radio instrumentation)
• Topic in Cosmic Neutrinos, 2019 (Participant, talk on radio detection and ANITA).
• Mind Bytes Research Computing Expo and Symposium 2018 (Poster on ANITA Computing)
• TevPA radio-detection mini-workshop, 2017 (Co-organizer).
• Computing in High-Energy AstroParticle Research 2016 (Participant; talk on ANITA analysis)
• Next-Generation Techniques for UHE Astroparticle Physics (Co-organizer)
• KICP Dark Matter Hub Workshop (talk on DMTPC)
• KICP Postdoc Symposia, 2015 (talk on DMTPC), 2018 (talk on ANITA Analysis), 2019 (talk on ice properties)
• SiD Workshop at SLAC, 2008 (Talk on Track Visualization)

Teaching

• TA for 8.01 (Freshman Mechanics) at MIT (2011)
• TA for 8.811 (Graduate Nuclear Physics) at MIT (2013)
• Instructor for CS1C and CS2C (residential basic computing courses) at Stanford (2008-2009)
• Research mentoring for many graduate and undergraduate students

Management

• RNO-G Calibration Coordinator, (2022 - )
• PUEO L3 Manager on flight software and simulations and analysis (2021 - )
• CMB-S4 L3 Manager on DAQ monitoring and alarms (2020- )

Outreach and Service

• Presenter at Astronomy Conversations at the Space Visualization Lab at Adler Planetarium, Chicago (2015 - )
• Instructor at Yerkes Winter Institute, 2015
• Upward Bound Tutor (2015 - 2016)
• Booth Presenter at French-American Science Festival (2016-2018)
• Presenter for KICP Life-Long Learning Series (older adult outreach program) (2017-)
• Presenter at Chicago Astronomy on Tap (2018)
• Mentor for Operation Airlift (2018)
• Referee for various journals, including EPJC, The Astrophysical Journal, Astroparticle Physics, and JATIS.

Awards and Fellowships

• Antarctic Service Medal (2016)
• Rossi Fellow, MIT (2009-2010)
• UAR Major Grant, Stanford (2008)

Extended Fieldwork

• Barcroft Field Station, White Mountain Research Center, White Mountains, California (June-July 2019, August 2022)
  BEACON calibration work.
• Summit Station, Greenland (June 2015, June - July 2021).
  Deployment of phased array antenna prototype in a borehole; Initial RNO-G deployment
• Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica (December 2019-January 2020)
  ARA maintenance and calibration work.
• Long-Duration Balloon Facility, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica (November - December 2016)
  ANITA-4 deployment.
• Columbia Scientific Ballooning Facility, Palestine, Tex. (June-July, 2016)
  Integration for ANITA-4 flight
• Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), Carlsbad, N. M. (on occasion, 2010-2013).
  Deployment of DMTPC prototype underground in a salt mine environment.

Technical Skills

Data analysis, visualization, and statistics; Monte Carlo simulation; signal and image processing; software development (C, C++, Python, JavaScript, Bash, SQL, Java, PHP), including system, web, and embedded development; Linux administration; wireless communications; radio-frequency systems, measurements, and antennas; electromagnetics simulations; particle detectors; vacuum systems; GNSS systems and GIS; basic CAD.

Languages

English (fluent), Romanian (native), Spanish (intermediate)