Research Interests

Welcome! I am currently a Scientific Programmer with the Kepler Mission, a space mission (set for launch in February 2009) that will search for Earth-like habitable planets. I work for the SETI Institute in the Project Development Division (Code PM) at NASA Ames Research Center.

I am also a NASA Ames Associate in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division (Code SST). My theoretical research interests include Solar and Extrasolar system dynamics, planet formation, circumstellar and circumbinary accretion disks, astrobiology (planetary habitability), N-body algorithms, and computationally studying other astrophysical phenomena. My dissertation, Planet Formation in Binary Star Systems, examined the late stages of terrestrial planet formation (1) around one star of widely separated binary stars - including the Alpha Centauri AB binary star system, and (2) surrounding both components of close (short-period) binary systems.

Publications

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Curriculum Vitae

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