I am an Assistant Professor in the Astronomy department of UC San Diego in La Jolla, California since fall 2024 where I am currently building my research group in Gravitational Wave Paleontology.
Between 2023 and 2024 I was a Junior Fellow in the Simons Society of Fellows, a position that I pursued in New York at Columbia University and the Simons Foundation, and also briefly a (research) Professor at Johns Hopkins University. I completed my astrophysics Ph.D. (’23) from Harvard University at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, MA. Before this, I also completed a joint MSc. degree in Astronomy from the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in 2018, and both a Bachelor’s degree in ‘Mathematics’ as well as a Bachelor’s degree in ‘Physics & Astronomy’ at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2017. I also studied applied mathematics at Lund University for 6 months in 2017.
I am a member of the COMPAS stellar evolution group, am actively involved in the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer collaborations, and initiated a new collaboration at UCSD between Astronomy, Physics, HDSI, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center called SMASH. I am a former member of AstroAI, a new and growing initiative to accelerate AI in astronomy at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian as well as IAFI at MIT.
Besides my research, I enjoy spending time and energy doing several other things for the Astronomy Community including initiating a group to support early-career astronomers, a conference session at the EAS for early-career astronomers and their supporters, and trying to create more support resources in Astronomy. In my free time, I love hiking, (trail) running, playing volleyball, cycling, juggling, being in the outdoors, and trying out new bakeries.
Teaching a COMPAS demo in the Saas-Fee Ph.D. school in 2022
