Welcome to my Work!

About Me

I’m a sometimes physicist, sometimes artist working out of the Chicago area. My focuses in science lie in the exploration of the universe through the detection of astrophysical particles. My interests in art revolve around teaching science, usually physics, in new and creative ways. I do this through creative coding projects, some of which are shown below.

Physics

I am a part of the Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos (BEACON) experiment and the Radio Neutrino Observatory - Greenland (RNO-G) experiment. These experiments are using novel techniques to detect radio-wave air showers created by astrophysical neutrinos when they interact in the earth (specifically in the earth’s crust or glacial ice). I am currently developing the next-generation all-Terrain Data AcQuisition system (TerraDAQ) for the BEACON experiment. My code developed for BEACON can be found here. I am also preparing to travel to Summit Station this summer for the next deployment season for RNO-G.

Art

My artistic pieces have focused on teaching science, primarily physics, through creative coding and innovative ideas. I believe anyone can learn science, but most science is taught in the same way everywhere, and some people struggle to connect with those teaching methods. So I’ve been creating tools to teach science, and to let people have fun while they learn.

Air Showers with Tennis Balls

Back in 2021 I created an installation exhibit where people could come and create ‘air showers’ by throwing tennis balls. My intention was to display how astrophysical particles hitting our atmosphere creates a large ‘shower’ of other particles and electromagnetic waves, and to do that in a fun way. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I have yet to show this piece in a public space. I do have a short video showcasing the piece, and I hope to install it at some point soon.

Index of Refraction

Later in 2021 I created an virtual ‘experiment’ to simulate the index of refraction of light incident on a boundray. I created this piece in p5.js as a tool to help teach my friends in introductory waves, optics, and light about this phenomenon. The math behind these concepts can be difficult to visualize, so I decided to make it real as a more direct teaching tool. I have included the experiment as a file in my repository.

Radio Wave Hacking

I am currently working on an installation piece to delve into the radio wave radiation the permeates every urban, and most rural, spaces. Radio stations (and other transmitters in the radio frequency regime) transmit constantly, filling our world with electromagnetic noise that is inaccesible without dedicated hardware. I am developing an installation that uses software defined radio (SDR) to access this space. The radio waves that persist in space will, obviously, be read out as audio, but those same waves will also influnce graphics that digitize what the radio waves are. The final piece will have three componenets: radio station audio, techincal data on the radio wave, and devloped graphics that are controlled by the changes in the radio wave. This piece will draw in the audience to think about these signals that live freely in our world, and, hopefully, perturb the understanding of free space and what we can see/hear.