I am a PhD candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching near Munich, Germany. I will complete my PhD in Spring, 2010. In November 2006, I graduated from the University of Toronto in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, with a Master's degree, which is also where I completed an Honours BSc. in 2004.

My current interests in astronomy include high energy astrophysics (black holes, neutron stars) and also low energy dynamical systems, like ones that result in planet and star formation. For my PhD. thesis, I'm working with Henk Spruit. The first year was spent modelling black hole X-ray spectra to demonstrate how an ion-bombardment model for the accretion flows at low accretion rates around black holes could be compatible with the soft X-ray excesses observed in galactic black hole binaries SWIFT J1753.5-0127 and GX 339-4.

Since then I have been studying an instability that can occur in stars with very strong magnetic fields (like neutron stars or proto-planets) surrounded by an accretion disc. The instability can lead to episodic bursts of accretion on moderately long timescales (seconds in neutron stars, several years in protoplanets). When the field is very strong and the accretion rate is low enough, the magnetic field will truncate the disc away from the surface of the star. When the star is rotating fairly rapidly, a centrifugal barrier will form and prevent gas from accreting onto the star. We have found that if the disc is truncated very close to the co-rotation radius (where the Keplerian frequency is equal to the star's rotation frequency), the gas will not be flung out of the system, but instead accumulate in the inner regions of the accretion disc, eventually piling up sufficient matter to force accretion onto the star, which will result in an outburst. This process could be responsible for the 1Hz Quasi-Periodic Oscillation observed in neutron star SAX J1808.8-3658, and the "EXor" class of protostars (like EX Lupi), which go into outburst every two to three years, changing in luminosity by several magnitudes. I am currently writing the results of this work up in a paper to be submitted in December, 2009. A companion paper (focusing on the nature of the outbursts and their application to individual sources) will follow in early 2010. I am also working on a small project with post-doc Stuart Sim at MPA, studying X-ray spectra from outflows around AGN .

For my master's thesis, I worked with Roman Rafikov, looking at the effects of pulse emission height in pulsar binary precision timing. In the past I've worked with Yuri Levin (then a Post-doc at CITA, now at Leiden) on precession in neutron stars, Ray Carlberg on the Legacy Supernova Project and Marten van Kerkwijk on the formation of close binary star systems.

My CV can be found here: Curriculum Vitae, and my list of publications: Publications.