I'm a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at UC Berkeley and a research assistant at SETI Institute. Previously, I earned my Ph.D. at UCLA working with advisor Prof. Mike Fitzgerald. Please visit the Research page for more details on my work.

Here on Earth, I enjoy spending time with my wonderful wife, Katie, appeasing our energetic dog, Alby, and pursuing a variety of interests.

Sports and athletics are how I spend much of my free time. I've been playing soccer for 20+ years and still play regularly. My other sporting activities include boxing, softball, volleyball, and pretty much anything else I can find. Exercise and competition help me shed stress and stay in shape.

Perhaps equally valuable as athletics is the time I spend at the beach, either catching some waves, going for a swim, or just reading on the sand. I grew up around the ocean and find it to be incredibly soothing for both mind and body.

My other interests include cooking, reading, gardening, rooting for the New York Yankees, speaking Italian, and many more things that I wish I had more time to do.

Background

I was born and raised in Bellmore, NY, a town on the south shore of Long Island. I went to John F. Kennedy High School there and then attended Georgetown University, where I earned a B.S. in physics as an undergraduate. During the spring semester of my junior year in college, I studied abroad in Milan, Italy. After graduation, I took a year off from formal schooling to do astrophysics research at NYU. I enrolled as an astronomy graduate student at UCLA in 2009, earned my M.S. in 2011, and completed my Ph.D. in August 2015.