I am the leader of the Aspera SmallSat space mission. The Aspera concept was selected for funding in the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers call in January of 2021. Aspera will detect and map ultraviolet emission from the gasses surrounding nearby galaxies, for the first time ever.
The Gaseous Circumgalactic Medium and Star Formation
I study how gas residing outside of galaxies gets there, and how that gas will eventually form the next generations of stars. The emitted light from different phases of gas leave fingerprints across the electromagnetic spectrum, which I observe using radio, infrared, optical, and ultraviolet telescopes on the ground and in space.
I am a Co-I on the Hyperion space mission concept. Hyperion is a UV space telescope designed to determine the mechanisms behind the formation of stars within molecular clouds. Hyperion was proposed to the 2019 NASA SMEX call, and is being reformulated for the 2021 MIDEX call.