Professional Title/Position

Astrophysicist, NASA/MSFC, Huntsville, AL

Degrees and Education

• PhD, 1999, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Candidate Statement

The future of high energy astrophysics depends crucially on communicating the value of our science to those outside our field, decision makers, and the public. In these times of constrained resources, our field needs a strong combination of cost-effective operation of existing missions, new technology developments, and well-planned collaborations with international partners to advance our science. HEAD plays a fundamental role in recognizing significant work, making sure that our work is broadly disseminated at meetings, and communicating with policy makers. I believe that my broad background in research (Crab Nebula variations, accreting pulsars, black holes, terrestrial gamma flashes, GRBs), data analysis, ranging from X-ray (e.g. ROSAT, RXTE, Chandra, Suzaku, NICER) to hard X-ray (e.g. BATSE, INTEGRAL, Fermi GBM, HEROES) to gamma ray (Fermi), instrumental work (Fermi GBM I&T, HEROES project scientist, SuperHERO), international collaboration (Fermi GBM, LOFT, accreting pulsars, Crab), and service (NASA X-ray Community Science team, member or chair for numerous NASA review panels) have been excellent preparation to serve the high energy community as a member of the HEAD Executive committee.

Affiliations

• 1991-1996, PhD, University College Dublin, part of the ground-based very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray Whipple collaboration.
• 1996-1999, NASA NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Marshall Space Flight Center, part of the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) team.
• 2000-present, University of Alabama in Huntsville. Member of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) team, member of the VHE Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Consortium, and the JEM-EUSO cosmic ray experiment proposed for placement on the International Space Station.

Candidate Statement

It has been a privilege to be part of a telescope or instrument team for all of my years in science to date. The relationship between instrument teams and the community has greatly evolved during this time, with NASA emphasizing healthy guest investigator programs that engage scientists outside the instrument teams in the excitement of the science from the missions. This has transformed the purpose of scientific meetings: from showcases for the big results from mission teams to petri-dishes for new collaborations that develop around the science of these missions, and opportunities for young scientists to see and exploit the possibilities offered by new data.

With VHE gamma-ray astronomy now a vibrant field, with the exciting astrophysical neutrino results from IceCube, and with the upcoming Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors, multi-messenger and astroparticle physics have become important parts of high-energy astrophysics that complement the NASA space missions that have traditionally comprised the HEAD portfolio.

If elected to the HEAD Executive Committee (EC), I would use my experience and interest across the areas of ground- and space-based gamma-ray and cosmic-ray physics to ensure that HEAD meetings remain a preferred venue to showcase the newest and nascent projects in astrophysics, and that they grow as a forum for collaborative science across and beyond the electromagnetic spectrum.

Another aspect of science that is changing is reflected in the fact that all four nominees for the HEAD EC are women. Past ECs and the HEAD membership must be commended for this development. If elected to the EC I will continue the tradition of encouraging diversity of all kinds within HEAD.

Since 2009, my primary role at GSFC has been Deputy Project Scientist for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope with supporting responsibilities for all aspects of the mission. I have been a member of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) team since 2007 and have pursued topics using the LAT data including variable and transient gamma-ray phenomena in the Galaxy, such as the high-energy flares from the Crab Nebula and searching for new types of transient gamma-ray emission, e.g., stellar novae. My research projects seek to expand our understanding of particle acceleration processes at work in the Galaxy using high energy observations of transient activity and supernova remnants. In addition to working with the LAT, I collaborate with ground-based gamma-ray telescopes (e.g., VERITAS and HAWC) to extend the spectral coverage and spatial imaging of particle acceleration sites as broadly as possible throughout the gamma-ray band. I provide some support for maintaining the Fermi LAT Anticoincidence Detector subsystem. I maintain an active interest, aligned with my earlier work on ground-based water and atmospheric Cherenkov instrumentation, in the development of technologies and future mission concepts for exploring the gamma-ray sky.

As a fellow of the Joint Space-Science Institute, I collaborate with researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park. I serve as a research advisor for two graduate students, one in the UMD astronomy department working on the topic of the escape of accelerated particles from supernova remnants and one in the UMD physics department conducting a study of cosmic-ray protons and heavier nuclei using the Fermi LAT.

Professional Title/Position

Astrophysicist in the Particle Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Affiliations

• Feb. 2009 - present: Astrophysicist in the Particle Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Fellow of the Joint Space-Science Institute
• Sept. 2007 - Feb. 2009: NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
• Sept. 2004 - Sept. 2007: Postdoctoral Research Associate jointly at the Enrico Fermi Insti- tute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and the High Energy Physics Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL. Associate Fellow of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago

Candidate Statement

I am eager to contribute to the continued evolution of HEAD in a time of fantastic data and exciting new scientific opportunities despite significant resource challenges for the future. My own evolution through the gamma-ray waveband, from ground-based to space-based telescopes, has brought me into contact with a broad range of instruments and science topics. One of my favorite parts of my current role on the Fermi Mission is the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of theoretical and observational studies related to the Fermi data and the multiwavelength and multimessenger efforts going on within the high energy astrophysics community. I hope to put this experience to good use in supporting engaging and productive HEAD meetings that keep pace with the dynamic progress in the field. I also look forward to pursuing additional ways of serving as an advocate for the importance and relevance of high energy research to the broader astronomy community and to the general public.

Degrees and Education

• 2014-present, Assistant Prof. of Physics, Texas Tech University
• 2012-present, AAS and APS: member
• 2010-present, LIGO Scientific collaboration: member
• 2012-2014, Assistant Prof. of Physics, George Washington University
• 2008-2012, Postdoc, California Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, University of Rome Sapienza
• 2007-2010, Virgo Collaboration: member
• 2007, PhD in Astronomy, University of Rome Sapienza and IASF/INAF-Rome

Candidate Statement

In the next few years, the high-energy astrophysics community will likely become a key player in multi-messenger studies of the most energetic astrophysical phenomena. Ongoing high-energy astrophysics missions working in concert with advanced ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are expected to open a completely new era in astronomy. I have been active in the fields of high-energy astrophysics and gravitational wave physics since the years of my PhD, developing a broad perspective on the opportunities and challenges that working across these fields poses to young researchers. As a member of the HEAD executive committee, I would bring this new perspective to help ensure an effective communication between the high-energy astrophysics community and the gravitational-wave one, and help promote the role of the HEAD in multi-messenger astronomy on the wider scale of the AAS.