I have been working on sPHENIX since the fall of 2021 at Lehigh University.

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

My primary focus and responsibility has been the construction, installation, and commissioning of the sPHENIX Event Plane Detector.

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

I am from northeastern Pennsylvania, and I completed a B.S. in physics and computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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

My thesis is tentatively titled Azimuthal anisotropy of jets in \sqrt_{s_{\rm NN}}=200 GeV Ru+Ru and Zr+Zr collisions, which I had the pleasure of presenting the current status of at Hard Probes 2023 in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

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

I didn't have a clear idea what specific subfield I wanted to join when I started graduate school, but I very quickly discovered that heavy-ion physics has a blend of physics, computing, and hardware work which fit my interests very well.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I recently have started keeping a small indoor garden with a handful of plants. In the past I haven't had much success with keeping plants alive, but this time I am using technology to beat those failings and have a Grafana page set up to monitor soil and environmental conditions and am in the midst of implementing an automated watering system.

Fun fact?

If I had not pursued physics, there is a strong chance I would have ended up studying music! I play violin (sort of), French horn, and electric bass and love playing in pit orchestras for musicals. My favorites which I have been a part of are Little Shop of Horrors and Sweeney Todd.