Hi! I’m Joseph (he/him), a third-year PhD student worker and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the Department of Astronomy, Boston University. I work in the BU White Dwarf Group with Prof. JJ Hermes where I am most focused on searching for and characterizing the oldest planetary systems in the galaxy. In particular, I am searching for the carcasses of tidally disrupted rocky exoplanets transiting the host white dwarf. Building a census of these transiting debris allows us to place constraints on the roadmap to metal pollution, the most common tracer of remnant planetary systems around white dwarfs. I also am interested in white dwarfs that vary in brightness due to other reasons, such as pulsating white dwarfs and strongly magnetic white dwarfs. I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with degrees in Astronomy and Physics in May 2021.

Welcome to my website. Beyond my research you can find here professional documentation like my CV (updated as of March 2024) and other resources. I have many project ideas for this space that are works in progress, so whenever I get to it you will be able to find some blog posts and essays, slightly decent photographs, and maybe cooking recipes here. I sometimes play trumpet too.