Research Experience

Postdoc Researcher

1. Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
3. Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology II , Greenbelt, MD

Postdoc researcher at CUA, working at NASA Goddard under CRESST2 cooperative agreement.

I am part of the team to develop ComPair telescope, a prototype of AMEGO. AMEGO is a midex mission concept. Additional information about AMEGO. ComPair (and AMEGO) uses four subsystem to achieve its scientific and instrument goals. These subsystems are Double Sided (DSSD) Silicon Tracker, CzT calorimeter, CsI calorimeters and Anti-Coincidence detectors (ACD). ComPair went to beam test (High Energy beam of particles) at TUNL (HIGS) facility at DUKE University in May of 2022. The data from the beam test are being analyzed. Additionally, the instrument is being improved and optimized in preparation for a balloon flight on fall of 2023.

Compton Pair (ComPair) Instrument

Pipeline

I am leading the Data Pipeline group for the project. The pipeline includes the journey of the data from its raw data stage (for each subsytem) to fully processed stage for additional analysis. The early stages of the journey includes, applying energy and position calibration, various filters and threshold, at various processing levels for each subsytem. The data is then combined and verfied via reconstructing the events using MEGALIB Toolkit.

Data Analysis and Simulation

Analyzing the data from calibration, beam test and future data from integration testing and balloon flight. Data Analysis includes, but not limited to, looking at the spectra, image and various statistics of the run. Simultaneously, simulating the instrument for the data runs (and its environment) to compared the simulation to the real run which would reassure our understanding of the instrument.

Silicon Tracker

Part of the silicon tracker hardware team where we assemble, calibrate and test the silicon tracker layers. I am also part of the Tracker pipeline team that focuses on the raw data and processing of the raw data from the silicon tracker. In addition to the hardware, I am also responsible for building and maintaining Tracker Interface which uses plotly and dash in python.

Graduate Student Researcher

1. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Gamma RAy Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE)

GRAPE was a balloon borne Compton polarimeter that flew on fall of 2014.

Hardware

• Involved in detector and instrument assembly.
• Performed instrument calibration.

Balloon campaign

• Participated in the balloon campaign for GRAPE 2014 in Ft. Sumner, NM.
  • Re-assembled the instrument and verified calibration before the flight.
  • Monitored the flight, from the ground, in conjunction with NASA CSBF.

Data Analysis and pipeline

• Led the data analysis pipeline efforts and processed the raw data
• Led the data analysis of the experiment (Spectral, Polarization, Background) along with simulations in GEANT4 (C++).
• Defended a Phd Dissertation based on the work done on GRAPE.

LargE Area burst Polarimeter (LEAP)

LEAP Resembles GRAPE without the pointing and rotating ability.

• Generated simulated and flight polarization for a special case of GRAPE for a narrow angle to approximate LEAP.

Student Researcher

1. Hiram College, Hiram, OH

Hard-Sphere polymer chain fluids

Simulation

Worked on a mapping model, “Solvation potential” to map many body to two body problem to expedite the simulations exponentially.

• Simulating hard-sphere polymer chains in a hard-sphere polymer solvent.
  • Monte-carlo simulations were performed in C-language.

Teaching Experiences

Teaching Assistant

University of New Hampshire, Durham,NH

Hiram College, Hiram,OH

Workshops and Trainings

Radiation Trainings

2013 - Present*
Certified to handle and work with radioactive sources.

Fermi Summer School

2017
Lewes, Delaware
The workshop was catered towards analysis of data from Fermi instruments (LAT and GBM). The workshop contained a mix of lectures and exercises focused towards data analysis of various astrophysical objects. The exercises were mainly conducted using Python notebook scripts.

Extracurricular Responsibilities

NGAPS+ officer

2019 - Present*
NASA Goddard Association of Postdoctoral and Early Career Scientists (NGAPS+)
NASA GSFC.

• Member of career development subcommittee
• Member of social event subcommittee

Graduate Student Senator

2017-2018 University of New Hampshire
As an elected graduate student senator, represented CHHS. Additionally also part of the following committee:

• Member of Health and Wellness committee.
• Member of Programming committee.

International Student Orientation Leader

2016, 2015 University of New Hampshire

• In conjunction with the Office of International Student and Scholar, hosted the orientation for incoming international student, for a week , to help with transitioning to United States and the University

Awards

Ming/Chen scholarship

2015
Physics Department, University of New Hampshire

This award was granted to cover the travel expenses for the 2015 HEAD meeting.

Distinguished Wildcat Service Award

2018
Graduate Student Senate, University of New Hampshire

This award was granted to the health and wellness committee members of the graduate student senate for accomplishing the most among the various different committees.

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