Research Interest

For the non-experts on the page, I am an observational astrophysicist. I study supermassive, hyperactive black holes called blazars and am specifically interested in understanding where the highest energy light is emitted by particle jets that are spewed out in the very near vicinity to these black holes. To see a brief description, check out my TED talk

For a more formal description of my work, I’m interested in understanding the physical mechanisms responsible for the highest energy emission in blazar jets. I use simultaneous, multiwavelength observations of blazars to constrain the location of the gamma-emitting region in flaring blazars. By constraining this region in flaring blazars, one can begin to isolate the dominant emission menchanisms responsible for what we observe. This was the main subject of my dissertation work, some of which can be found here and here. The following plot summarizes the results of those studies, namely that at high gamma-ray flares, there is an increase in the broad line luminosity, which suggests that for those flaring episodes, the gamma-emitting region is within the broad line region.

Most recently, I’ve been investigating how long-term optical/near-infrared (OIR) color variability relates to the jet “state.” I’ve just submitted this work for publication, so there should be a figure here soon with an even more informative