Einstein Fellow · MIT Kavli Institute

Matter is a mystery.

I study dark matter, the invisible material that makes up 85% of all matter in the universe. My research combines techniques from particle physics, cosmology, and black hole physics to extract new hints about what dark matter is and how it behaves.

What was the universe like just after the big bang? What particles and symmetries have we yet to discover? Why is there matter at all? The search for dark matter bears on all of these.

Cosmic web of dark matter filaments from the Dark Sky simulations — The cosmic web · Dark Sky simulations

About me

I’m a Bay Area native, a timid singer, and an avid baker (since before COVID-19).

I studied physics and math at Stanford, where I got my first introduction to the dark universe working with Risa Wechsler. I held off on my PhD for a year to work on bibliometrics with Jonathan Pritchard and take extra math classes, picking up an MS in math for my trouble.

Then came a PhD with Stefano Profumo at UC Santa Cruz — lovely years among the redwoods — followed by the Pappalardo Fellowship at MIT. Since 2026 I’ve been an Einstein Fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute, through the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program.

While I’m affiliated with the MIT Kavli Institute, I still sit in the Center for Theoretical Physics, where I work most closely with the groups of Tracy Slatyer and David Kaiser. I also collaborate with friends at many other institutions.

Students & collaborators →

Research

Dark matter phenomenology, reaching into early-universe cosmology, BSM physics, gravitational waves, and multi-messenger probes of new physics.

The Bullet Cluster, with dark matter mapped in blue

Particle dark matter

Connecting dark matter to observables in astrophysics, cosmology, and the laboratory — and building new ways to detect it.

Selected Direct detection in dielectrics Detection with material databases Light DM in electronic experiments

Illustration of an evaporating black hole

Primordial black holes

Black holes as a dark matter candidate, a window onto the very early universe, and a probe of particle dark matter.

Selected Detecting PBHs in the Solar System Finding PBHs in binary systems Detecting Planck-scale relics

Artist's impression of an accreting supermassive black hole

New signatures

Novel astrophysical probes of dark matter, especially black hole mergers, gravitational waves, and ultralight halos.

Selected Ultralight DM halos A new thermal history for dark sectors BSM forces from supermassive black holes

Talks & travel

Where I’ll be, and where I’ve been.

Upcoming

Oct 20–22, 2026University of Tennessee, Knoxville · Knoxville, TN

Recent

Oct 5–9, 2026 Hubble Fellows Symposium · Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA
Aug 10–14, 2026 Invisibles 2026 · A Coruña, Spain
Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2026 MITP program: Phenomenology of Primordial Black Holes · Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Mainz, Germany
Jun 22–26, 2026 PASCOS 2026 · Sheffield, England
Jun 15–19, 2026 Black Holes & Cosmology 2026 · Granada, Spain
May 11–13, 2026 Phenomenology 2026 Symposium · University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Full archive →

Outreach

I get to do what I do thanks to many others, and I do my best to pay that support forward to the next generation.

Teaching in prisons

From the Prison University Project at San Quentin, to the UCSC Project for Inmate Education, to teaching with TEJI at MIT.

Kids & classrooms

Classroom conversations through Skype a Scientist, and pen-pal letters through Letters to a Pre-Scientist.

Physics Values Committee

Working on inclusion and community in MIT Physics as part of the Physics Values Committee. If you have a concern or just want to talk, reach out.

Mentoring

Undergraduate research, SPS/WiPA mentoring, SU(5) peer mentoring for new grad students, and the UCSC Physics Collaborative.