About me

I am from the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, IL. I completed my Astronomy (Honors) and Physics Majors, with minors in Mathematics and Spanish, from The University of Arizona in Spring 2021. I began work as a PhD student at Purdue University the following semester. I work with Danny Milisavljevic on enhanced mass loss in massive stars before stellar death.

Fun Fact: When Bhagya Subrayan and our group first took interest in AT 2021lwx, I mistakenly read its ZTF ID (ZTF20abrbeie) as Barbie! Ever since then, we have referred to this transient as "Scary Barbie." Check out Bhagya's paper on Barbie! The study and naming of this object came at the perfect time with Greta Gerwig's movie coming out. And yes, I did do Barbenheimer, and I saw Barbie first.

What i'm doing

  • Echelle icon

    Echelle Spectroscopy

    High resolution (R>60,000) spectroscopy of supernovae with flash features.

  • JWST icon

    JWST Imaging and Spectroscopy

    NIRSpec and MIRI/MRS spectra of Cassiopeia A.

  • IFU icon

    Optical Integral Field Unit Spectroscopy

    Reconstructing mass loss environments with spatially-resolved observations.

  • Slit icon

    Long-Slit Spectroscopy

    Long-slit spectroscopy of supernova remnants for kinematic reconstruction.

Affiliations

Resume

Education

  1. Purdue University

    2021 — Present

    Ph.D. Physics (In Progress)
    M.Sc. Physics (In Progress)
    Advisor: Prof. Danny Milisavljevic
    Thesis: Reconstructing mass loss environments and explosive debris of CCSNe

  2. University of Arizona

    2017 — 2021

    B.Sc. Astronomy (Honors), B.Sc. Physics (Cum Laude)
    Minors: Mathematics, Spanish
    Advisor: Prof. Nathan Smith

Presentations

  1. Invited Talks

    Guest Lecture for Oak Forest High School, Oak Forest, IL, Dec. 2025
    Guest Lecture at Ivy Tech Community College PHYS 100 Class, Lafayette, IN, January 2026
    Big Boom Science Discussion, Tucson, AZ, October 2025
    Guest Lecture at Ivy Tech Community College PHYS 100 Class, Lafayette, IN, April 2025
    Purdue Astronomy Club Group Meeting, West Lafayette, IN, Oct. 2024
    Guest Lecture for Oak Forest High School, Oak Forest, IL, Oct. 2024
    Guest Lecture at Ivy Tech Community College PHYS 100 Class, Lafayette, IN, Aug. 2024
    V. A. Villar Group Meeting, Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, July 2024
    WIYN/NEID Board Meeting, April 2024
    CIERA/Northwestern Time-Domain Summer Journal Club, Aug. 2023

  2. Contributed Talks

    Rutgers Summer Transient Science Soiree, Piscataway, NJ, July 2025
    Rise_Time Conference, West Lafayette, IN Aug. 2024
    Spoken WERRD+ Transient Conference, Oct. 2022
    Big Boom Science Discussion, Tucson, AZ, Nov. 2020
    Purdue University Physics & Astronomy Final REU Mini-Conference, Aug. 2020
    Arizona/NASA Space Grant Consortium Annual Symposium, April 2020
    Big Boom Science Discussion, Tucson, AZ, Nov. 2019

  3. Posters

    247th Meeting of the AAS, Phoenix, AZ, Jan. 2026
    Purdue Physics Poster Session, Wes Lafayette, IN, Nov. 2025
    245th Meeting of the AAS, National Harbor, MD, Jan. 2025
    Purdue Physics Poster Session, West Lafayette, IN, Nov. 2024
    Supernova Remnants III, Chania, Greece, June 2024
    WISP Travel Grant Symposium, West Lafayette, IN, April 2024
    243rd Meeting of the AAS, New Orleans, LA, Jan. 2024
    241st Meeting of the AAS, Seattle, WA, Jan. 2023
    237th Meeting of the AAS, Jan. 2021
    235th Meeting of the AAS, Honolulu, HI, Jan. 2020
    University of Arizona First Year Project Symposium, Tucson, AZ, April 2018

Employment

  1. Graduate Research Assistant

    2022 — Present

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

  2. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Fellow

    Summer 2024

    Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA
    Supervised by John Raymond and Dan Patnaude.

  3. Graduate Teaching Assistant

    August 2021 - May 2023, Spring 2026

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
    Reduced and analyzed long-slit spectroscopy of G292; contributed to PhD research.

  4. Astronomy Camp Counselor

    Summer 2021

  5. Science Center Intepreter and Planetarium Operator

    April 2019 - May 2021

    Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, Tucson, AZ

Teaching & Mentorship

  1. Astrocamp

    March 2023, 2026

    San Jose de Las Vegas, Medellin, Colombia

  2. Data Mine Teaching Assistant

    2022 — Present

    Mentored undergraduate research students and taught LaTeX and data analysis.

Leadership & Service

  1. Physics Graduate Student Association

    2022 — Present

    President (2025–2026), Vice President (2024-2025), Secretary (2022-2024)

  2. Outreach & Education

    2021 — Present

    Astronomy on Tap speaker, AstroCamp organizer, public lectures, and science communication initiatives.

Honors & Awards

  1. Major Awards

    2026 Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Scholar Award
    2024 Graduate Student Chambliss Award
    2023 The Gabriele F. Giuliani Award
    2022 Rolf Scharenberg Graduate Summer Research Fellowship
    2021 Outstanding Senior for the Department of Astronomy and College of Science Finalist
    2020-2021 Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society
    2020-2021 Galileo Circle Scholar
    2020-2021 Slipher Scholarship
    2017-2021 Academic Distinction
    2019-2020 University of Arizona/NASA Space Grant Internship
    2017-2021 Arizona Excellence Scholarship
    2017-2021 Academic Recognition Award

Research

I study time domain astronomy. Currently, I am focusing on enhanced mass loss in massive stars during the decade prior to explosion. I am pursuing this topics with single-object extragalactic studies and with the supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A.

Selected Publications

1. D. Dickinson, D. Milisavljevic, B. Garretson, L. Dessart, R. Margutti, R. Chornock, B. Subrayan, D. J. Hillier, E. Golib, D. Li, S. E. Logsdon, J. Rajagopal, S. Ridgway, N. Smith, C. Cynamon 2025. The Immediate, Exemplary, and Fleeting echelle spectroscopy of SN 2023ixf: Monitoring acceleration of slow progenitor circumstellar material, driven by shock interaction. ApJ. 10.3847/1538-4357/adc108
D. Dickinson, N. Smith, J. Andrews, P. Milne, C. D. Kilpatrick, D. Milisavljevic 2024. The Superluminous Type IIn Supernova ASASSN-15ua: Part of a Continuum in Extreme Precursor Mass Loss. MNRAS. 10.1093/mnras/stad3631
S. Orlando, H.-T. Janka, A. Wongwathanarat, D. Dickinson, D. Milisavljevic, M. Miceli, F. Bocchino, T. Temim, I. De Looze, D. Patnaude 2025. Filamentary Ejecta Network in Cassiopeia A Reveals Fingerprints of the Explosion Mechanism. A&A. 10.1051/0004-6361/202553833
I. De Looze, D. Milisavlejvic, T. Temim, D. Dickinson, R. Fesen, R. G. Arendt, J. Chastenet, S. Orlando, J. Vink, M. J. Barlow, F. Kirschlager, F. D. Priestley, J. C. Raymond, J. Rho, N. S. Sartorio, T. Scheffler, F. Schmidt, W. P. Blair, O. Fox, C. Fryer, H.-T. Janka, B.-C. Koo, J. M. Laming, M. Matsuura, D. Patnaude, M. Relaño, A. Rest, J. Schmidt, N. Smith, N. Sravan 2024. The Green Monster hiding in front of CasA: JWST reveals a dense and dusty circumstellar structure pockmarked by ejecta interactions. ApJ 10.3847/2041-8213/ad855d
W. V. Jacobson-Galan, K. W. Davis, C. D. Kilpatrick, L. Dessart, R. Margutti, R. Chornock, R. J. Foleu, P. Arunachalam, K. Auchettl, C. R. Bom, R. Cartier, D. A. Coulter, G. Dimitriadis, D. Dickinson, M. R. Drout, A. T. Gagliano, C. Gall, B. Garretson, L. Izzo, D. O. Jones, N. LeBaron, H.-Y. Miao, D. Milisavljevic, Y.-C. Pan, A. Rest, C. Rojas-Bravo, A. Santos, H. Sears, B. Subrayan, K. Taggart, S. Tinyanont 2024. SN~2024ggi in NGC 3621: Rising Ionization in a Nearby, CSM-Interacting Type II Supernova. ApJ 10.3847/1538-4357/ad5c64
D. Milisavlejvic, T. Temim, I. De Looze, D. Dickinson, J. M. Laming, R. Fesen. J. C. Raymond, R. G. Arendt, J. Vink, B. Posselt, G. G. Pavlov, O. D. Fox, E. Pinarski, B. Subrayan, J. Schmidt, W. P. Blair, A. Rest, D. Patnaude, B.-C. Koo, J. Rho, S. Orlando, H.-T. Janka, M. Andrews, M. J. Barlow, A. Burrows, R. Chevalier, G. Clayton, C. Fransson, C. Fryer, H. L. Gomez, F. Kirschlager, J.-J. Lee, M. Matsuura, M. Niculescu-Duvaz, J. D. R. Pierel, P. P. Plucinsky, F. D. Priestley, A. P. Ravi, N. S. Sartorio, F. Schmidt, M. Shahbandeh, P. Slane, N. Smith, N. Sravan, K. Weil, R. Wesson, C. J. Wheeler 2024. JWST Survey of the Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A. ApJ 10.3847/2041-8213/ad324b
B. M. Subrayan, D. Milisavljevic, R. Chornock, R. Margutti, K. D. Alexander, V. Ramakrishnan, P. C. Duffell, D. Dickinson, K.-S. Lee, D. Giannios, G. Lentner, M. Linvill, B. Garretson, M. J. Graham, D. Stern, D. Brethauer, T. Duong, W. Jacobson-Galán, N. LeBaron, D. Matthews, H. Sears, P. Venkatraman 2023. Scary Barbie: An Extremely Energetic, Long-duration Tidal Disruption Event Candidate without a Detected Host Galaxy at z = 0.995. ApJ 10.3847/2041-8213/accf1a

JWST Dashboard

  • Cassiopeia A

    Cassiopeia A

    JWST Imaging & Spectroscopy

  • Cassiopeia A

    Cassiopeia A

    JWST Imaging & Spectroscopy

Team SN in JWST

Team SUPERNOVA! Research Group

I am part of the Time Domain Astronomy Research Group at Purdue University, run by Dr. Danny Milisavljevic.

Portfolio

  • Team SN! Family Tree

    Team SN! Family Tree

    Graphic Design

  • Lessons from Richard

    Lessons from Richard

    Coffee Hour Announcement

Outreach

Contact

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