Education

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD | 2021-present

• Graduate student, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Amherst College, Amherst MA | 2017-2021

• Bachelors of Arts cum laude
• Astronomy, Physics double major
• Honors thesis in Astronomy, nominated by department for summa cum laude honors

Experience

Extrasolar Planetary Systems Imaging Group, Space Telescope Science Institute | Baltimore, MD | June 2021 – present

Graduate Research Assistant

• Currently investigating the atmospheres and formation of Brown Dwarfs and exoplanets using space and ground based telescopes

Follette Lab, Amherst College | Amherst, MA | 2018 – present

Undergraduate Research Assistant- Dr. Kate Follette

• Conducted angular and spectral differential imaging to search transitional disks for forming exoplanets
• Calibrated absolute astrometric solution for the Visible Light Adaptive Optics (VisAO) instrument
• Transition Disk Database Project Lead: coordinated and managed junior researchers in aggregating data and developing a platform for a centralized, public record of the properties of over 200 transition disks
• Contributed to GAPlanetS project code and data reduction

SIOS Lab, Cornell University | Ithaca, NY | June 2020 – August 2020

Research Assistant- Dr. Dmitry Savransky

• Performed space telescope mission yield simulations for Miniaturized Distributed Occulture/Telescope (mDOT) mission
• Contributed to EXOSIMS project code (Savransky et al. 2017)

Physics and Astronomy Department, Amherst College | Amherst, MA | Sept 2019 – May 2021

Teaching Assistant, Grading Assistant, Amherst College Observatory (ACO) operator

• TA for ASTR112 (2019F), ASTR337 (2020F), ASTR341 (2021S)
• Conducted data collection/reduction, telescope setup/operation, grading/rubric construction, and assisted students with coding challenges. Led a lecture on the implementation of fourier domain image filtering.

Presentations

“The orbit and Hα variability of HD 142527B” STScI Spring Symposium, April 19th-24th, 2021

“Adolescent astronomy: Planet formation, Direct imaging, and early-career astronomy research” UMass Astronomy Club, April 20th, 2021

“Drums in the Deep: constraining the orbit and photometric variability of the chasm-carving M-dwarf HD 142527B” AAS 237th meeting, Jan 13th, 2021

“Exploring the Transition Disk Population with a public facing database” AAS 235th meeting, Jan 7th, 2020

Publications

Follette, … Balmer et al. (in prep.)

Balmer et al. (in prep.)

Awards

Owen Fellowship Award (2021-present)

Chambliss Student Poster Award Honorable Mention, AAS 237th meeting (2021)

Charles Hamilton Houston Program (2020)

Gregory S. Call Award (2019)

Sarles Fellow, Sarles Science Research Fund (2018)

Press and Reporting

See my in the press page online

Interests

Academic interests include planetary formation, circumstellar disk evolution, and direct imaging techniques. Self published two text-adventure games: You are petting a cat, and Fly Trap

Additional Experience/Volunteer Work/etc

Science communication - Astronomy Editor, Amherst STEM Network | October 2019 – present

Science communication - Writer, personal blog | June 2018 – present

Director/Producer - “LOL: A Modern Computer Farce” at the Shoebox Theater | June 2016

Data Science Skills

• Python: data visualization, preprocessing, analysis. Written multiple Optical/IR data reduction pipelines (Magellan/Clio2, WIYN0.9m/HDI, ACO).
• Git: version control and collaboration
• LaTeX: academic document preparation, formatting, design