My primary institution is Purdue University, and I have been working with sPHENIX with support from Purdue and RIKEN since 2022.

What is the focus of your work on the sPHENIX experiment?

Currently, I've been focused on INTT related software tasks. In particular, the High Voltage GUI (both the version used by shifters and other experts) and the Online Monitoring plots for the INTT. I also compiled the INTT survey geometry into CDB files and wrote the original draft of the class used for hit unpacking to DSTs, but many others have contributed to that class since. As we move more toward data analysis, I will focus on $\Lambda_{c}$ reconstruction through the $pK\pi$ decay chain.

Where were you born and what is your educational background before your current position?

I was born in Illinois, but I have spent most of my life in Indiana. Before coming to Purdue, I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Wabash College with a double major in math and physics.

What is the title of your Ph.D. or tentative title? Awards or biggest talk highlight?

The tentative title for my thesis is "Prompt $\Lambda_{c} reconstruction in sPHENIX $pp$", and my biggest talk was "Overview of sPHENIX Tracking Detectors," which I presented at the RHIC AGS Users' Meeting in August 2023.

How did you decide to go into heavy ion or spin research?

After finishing undergrad, I pursued a graduate degree without a specific subfield in mind. I expected to work with a professor I had known from undergraduate research doing phenomenological 5th force searches, but that fell through due to lack of funding. After finishing my core courses while TAing, I joined an AMO group doing more computational research. This didn't work out, either—at the time, my C programming skills were lacking, and I resolved to take coding much more seriously in my next endeavor. When a friend mentioned that what is now my current group had an opening, I joined and made a point of quickly understanding C++ and ROOT, as well as Vim, Git, Python, and various common Unix commands. I was more successful this time, and most of you know the rest from there.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I spend a substantial amount of my free time in the gym training for hypertrophy, but I have recently started training for lifts such as the snatch and the clean and jerk. I don't plan on competing in strength sports, though I try to push myself in these endeavors as though I did. In addition to this, I undertake small coding projects to teach myself various aspects of various programming languages. One of the first of such projects was an implementation of Minesweeper which runs in a terminal emulator using ncurses and Vim-style movement controls, written in pure C. But, once it was never quite finished after it got into a playable state—I tended to "test" it instead of develop it each time I navigated to the directory.

Fun fact?

I don't drink nor eat animal products.