I am most interested in the chemical evolution of our Milky Way Galaxy as evidenced by abundances of open clusters. Since 2001, I have been working with Drs. Eileen Friel and Caty Pilachowski on abundance studies of some of the oldest open clusters in the Galactic disk - a long-term project Eileen started a while ago. My dissertation research is a detailed study of chemical abundances of open clusters in the transition region between the inner and outer Milky Way disk. Work over the last decade or so has found increasing evidence that the average disk cluster abundances of Fe and other elements changes sharply at ~10 kpc from the Galactic center (Rgc). Open clusters interior to 10 kpc have roughly solar abundances, while those in the outer disk have [Fe/H]~ -0.3. I am working on a sample of ~25 open clusters with Galactocentric distances of ~9-13 kpc. With ~4 clusters per unit Rgc bin, I hope to more precisely characterize the shape of the transition as traced by elements such as Fe, O, Na, and the alpha elements.

This research involves use of medium- and high-resolution spectroscopy of individual stars in each open cluster. I have applied for and received time on the WIYN 3.5m, CTIO 4m, and MMT 6.5m telescopes to obtain spectra of dozens of stars at once using multi-object spectrographs. In addition to these data, I am also analyzing single star spectra of stars in ~10 clusters obtained with the HET and KPNO 4m telescopes (E. Friel as PI).

Past research experience includes looking for the transient spectral signatures of Falling Evaporative Bodies (FEBs) around A stars in young open clusters with my advisor C. Pilachowski. Like my current work, this project made use of CTIO 4m and WIYN 3.5m multi-object spectroscopy of open clusters.

During the summer of 2002, as an REU student I worked with C. Deliyannis and fellow student Jeff Cummings on WIYN 0.9m UBVRI photometry of three open clusters. This project was part of the WIYN Open Cluster Study (WOCS), a large collaboration working on determining fundamental parameters of a large number of open clusters in the Milky Way, such as age, distance and reddening.