I joined sPHENIX as a graduate student in about 2018, with Baruch College. My advisor, Stefan Bathe, is a member of both PHENIX and sPHENIX, so I was involved with both through him.

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

HCal assembly, testing, calibration, commissioning. My fingers are crossed for a p + Au run, so I can work on heavy-flavor-tagged jets in small systems (with an eye towards a vn measurement).

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

I was born and grew up on Long Island. I went to Hofstra for undergrad (both physics and English lit), and then off to CUNY/Baruch for the Ph.D. work. I also went to law school in between.

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

My thesis was a PHENIX/sPHENIX hybrid: "Centrality Effects on Heavy-Flavor Quark Production and Invariant Yield in PHENIX Proton-Gold Collisions at Center-of-Mass Energy 200 GeV, and Assembly, Testing, Calibration, and Installation of the sPHENIX Hadronic Calorimeters." As a student, I was awarded a RHIC/AGS Merit Award for the work on the HCal assembly and testing. I enjoyed doing the HCal presentation for the sPHENIX school in 2022, because I got to know more of the new scientists joining the group.

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

I have been intersted in quarks and the strong interaction since high school, and I was lucky enough that CUNY/Baruch had an experimental high-energy nuclear-physics group at Baruch studying just that!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I am a nature-lover, and I love hiking along the south-shore beaches on Long Island, especially in the off-seasons--nothing quite like seeing snow being washed away by a crashing wave!

Fun fact?

I love videogame music (even more than playing the games!). The CD perennially in my car stereo includes highlights from Donkey Kong, Mario, Okami, Lego Island, and Myst.