Introduction
I am a computational physicist, and software and simulation engineer with 20+ years of
experience in modeling, simulation, scientific software development, and technical analysis.
I have also worked in developing and promoting reproducible research and analysis methods, and
maintainable shared code.
Since 2020 I have focused on wireless communications and spectrum-sharing studies at
Auria Space (formerly RKF Engineering LLC), where I work as Senior Engineer (Regulatory).
I develop simulation tools and analyses for regulatory, advocacy, and system-engineering work
involving optimization, propagation, coexistence, and long-range communications. My work covers
interference, compatibility, and coexistence studies across multiple frequency bands and services
(including Wi-Fi, IMT, satellite, and fixed-service impacts), and Article 22 / EPFD compliance
assessments for satellite operators. I support regulatory activities by analyzing technical
studies, contributing to spectrum-related assessments, and participating in ITU-R and related
groups (including WP 4A, WP 5C, WP 5D, and ECC). I work regularly in SEAMCAT, STK,
Visualyse Professional, and the ITU BR software tools, and where a study has needed capability
those tools did not cover, I have written my own implementations of the underlying ITU-R
methodologies — including S.1503 for NGSO PFD masks and Article 22 licensing, and
M.2101 for terrain-driven IMT interference modeling.
Prior to that, for five years, I worked for Giant Army as
Staff Astrophysicist and Developer on Universe
Sandbox, a physics simulator sandbox game available on
Steam. The game has n-body gravity simulation,
climate and materials simulation, stellar evolution and much more. I worked on the grid based EBM and GCM
climate modeling, hydrodynamics, collision physics, Roche fragmentation, and stellar evolution simulation codes.
Before that, I worked for the Department of Statistics at Columbia University studying open
coding, open data, big data management, and statistical issues of reproducibility in the sciences.
A major focus was a project called
ResearchCompendia.science, a web service that
allows researchers to run codes associated with scientific publications, and allows authors of
publications to create companion websites on which others may reproduce the paper's results or
run their own parameters.
Prior to that, I worked in the field of numerical relativity. I have ten years of experience
designing, developing and testing massively parallel numerical simulations that evolve highly
non-linear partial differential equations (the Einstein Equations) in three or more dimensions
for dynamical systems (close binary black holes and neutron stars). Though my degrees are in
physics and astrophysics, I have a strong and unique computer science background in software
development and testing, numerical simulations, analysis, database management, and cluster
management.
My main operating system is Linux (though I use macOS since NASA). I have extensive experience
with both independent and large scale collaborative software design, development, and testing.
I have experience developing for parallelized simulation software
(Cactus and Carpet),
distributed computing software (Einstein@Home), game
development in C# and Unity (Universe Sandbox), and
visualization software (DUSTVis). I have
extensive experience with versioning systems (Git, SVN, CVS), and database management.
My personal simulation codes are usually C++ (parallelized with OpenMP or MPICH). Smaller
simulations are written in Python or Java. Collaborative simulation codes are sometimes Fortran.
For analysis I use Python, R, Gnuplot, Octave, MATLAB, Mathematica, or Maple. Scripting for
simulation management and analysis is usually Python, Ruby, bash, or Perl. I am always quick and
eager to learn new languages and tools.
From 2010 to late 2012 I occupied a NASA Postdoctoral Position (NPP) in the Astrophysical
Sciences Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center doing numerical relativity and
gravitational astrophysics related to the LISA mission (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) and
relevant to LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory).
I received my Ph.D. from the Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany for research at the
Max-Planck Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert Einstein Institute) in February 2010 for
the thesis "Numerical Simulation of Binary Black Hole Spacetimes and a Novel Approach to Outer
Boundary Conditions."
I am currently living in Washington, DC. In my free time I occupy myself with open source
projects, online coursework, electrical engineering projects, interactive public art, fire
spinning, and rock climbing.
I like hunting dragons, I like rapid prototyping, and I get compulsively excited about results
on the horizon. I am never bored. I am passionate and hard working, but I also enjoy life and am
very engaged — I don't believe those two things need to clash.
