Hi, I’m Max!

I am a third-year PhD student, an NSF Graduate Research fellow, an AAS National Osterbrock Leadership fellow, and a Center for Teaching and Learning Lead Teaching Fellow at Columbia University. My work primarily focuses on the connection between simulations and cosmological analyses. I love to develop new methods for extracting as much information from simulations as possible and build software that allows this. I have been especially interested in weak gravitational lensing and have been trying to understand how hydrodynamical simulations can help inform the analysis of upcoming surveys. For more information on my research, please see my Publications tab.

My path to academia was highly nonlinear and involved many years of traveling the country, working on organic farms, and managing environmental non-profit fundraising offices. I returned to Cabrillo Community College, where an incredible group of professors inspired me to pursue physics and astronomy. After obtaining associate degrees in Math and History, I transferred to UC Berkeley and completed a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Physics and Astronomy. I then spent a year at Columbia University solely focussing on weak lensing research with Prof. Zoltan Haiman, after which I enrolled as a graduate student. I am passionate about science, communication, outreach, and the arts.

Feel free to email me anytime!