About me

I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, did my undergrad in Chemistry & Physics at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, and went on to graduate school in theoretical physics at the University of California at Berkeley. I grew enamored with supersymmetric and supergravity theories, and this took me all over the world. First, I went down under to work with Sergei Kuzenko at the University of Western Australia in Perth, and then to Amsterdam, where I worked with Bernard de Wit at Nikhef. Afterwards, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy in College Station, Texas.

Research interests

I am a theoretical physicist interested in the interplay between mathematical physics, supersymmetry, and string theory. My work is inspired by string theory, which remains our strongest candidate for the unification of Einstein’s general relativity and the Standard Model of particle physics, but I am primarily interested in what supersymmetry’s restrictive mathematical structure can tell us about quantum field theory and quantum gravity.

Some topics I have worked on include supersymmetric non-linear $\sigma$-models (especially in anti-de Sitter backgrounds), general formulations of off-shell supergravity-matter actions, higher derivative corrections in supergravity theories, and duality-covariant formulations of supergravity (such as double and exceptional field theory).

“It is only slightly overstating the case to say that physics is the study of symmetry.” – Philip W. Anderson