Hobbies

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Hiking
Camping
Fossil Collecting and Rockhounding
Photography
Bread Baking
Backyard Poultry

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Coding is a big part of my research and I enjoy coding for fun! See my github profile and Projects page!

An example star trail animation made from code I wrote to make star trails given a random assortment of stars and a rotational axis.

I have experience with the programming languages Python, javascript, html, MATLAB, Mathematica, C, C++, and cern ROOT. I work primary with Python and I am very familiar with the following packages as I use them frequently in my research: Numpy, Scipy, Keras, Pyroot, Matplotlib, and Pandas.

I also love tinkering with Linux systems and had 2 years experience as a linux system administrator for Telescope Array’s Data Server and Computational Clusters. I used to even host this very website on a Raspberry Pi (Until I thought that was an unwanted cybersecurity risk for my home network)!

Here are some javascript applications I have been developing, assisted by agentic AI (Claude), to host on my website:

Star Chart: A Starchart display that takes a geolocation and projects stars, planets, deep space objects, and satellites into the topocentric frame of the observers position. User can toggle +/- 24 hrs to see these objects progress across the sky.

Geostationary Fulldisk Viewer: A display for checking the most recent fulldisk imagery for GOES East and West, Himawari, and EUMetSat.

Geostationary Mesoscale Viewer: A display of the current GOES Mesoscale Domain Scan (MDS) mode locations relative to space launch centers.

*AI Disclosure: Claude was used to assist in the generation of the javascript and visualization in these applications under my direction. Claude made mistakes in these codes, which I fixed.

Hiking

Living in Boulder Colorado, close to the Front Range or being in close proximity to National Parks in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, or Wyoming gives me ample opportunity to hike and experience the outdoors.

Hiking on the snow pack at Crater Lake NP with my wife Kiley.

Hiking through the Fern Canyon in Red Woods State and National Parks.

Spring snowshoeing in the Front Range Indian Peaks.

Camping

Living out west, there are many of opportunities for camping outdoors. The west provides options to camp in State Parks, National Parks, and our Public Lands or better yet, finding my own campsite in a National Forest or Federal Land Managed by the Bureau of the Land Management (BLM) where permitted. There is much land out west where one can use for dispersed camp! Please leave no trace!

Dispersed camping near Canyonlands NP.

Dispersed camping near Zion NP.

Fossil Collecting and Rockhounding

Utah has plenty of unique fossils and rocks. While working for the Telescope Array Cosmic Ray Observatory, I had plenty of time to explore Millard County, UT looking at the rocks out there. I have traveled to the Dugway Geode Beds, Topaz Mountain, Fossil Mountain, Sunstone Knoll, and more. On public land you may collect rocks and fossils (always check federal, state, and local regulations and make sure you are not on a active register claim!). Good sources for rules in Utah are: BLM Collection Rules and Utah Geological Survey Collecting Rules.

Cyanobacteria Fossils from one the times when much of Utah was underwater. Left: Stromatolite Right: Oncolite.

Orthocone nautiloid fossils from the Ordovician period found at Fossil Mountain, Utah. Some of my favorite fossils from Utah.

Receptaculites fossil from the Ordovician period found at Fossil Mountain, Utah. I like the nice geometric spirals.

Trilobites, Elrathia kingii, in Wheeler Shale from Swasey Peak, Utah.

Photography

Spending time in the great outdoors gives lots of inspiration to capturing the amazing views on can being in the right place in time. I enjoy landscape and astrophotography.

I took this photo in Grand Teton NP at the Snake River Overlook. See my Photography page!

Bread Baking

I have a sourdough starter (named Fest) that I’ve been feeding since graduate school. I enjoy baking bread and find the process very soothing. I am fascinated that I can make bread from an wild yeast! Also the bread also comes out tasty, smells amazing, and beautiful! Check out my Sourdough Bread recipe.

Left: Dough turned out of the Banneton and sliced with a razor blade. Now its ready to go into the oven. Right: Finished Bread! Got some nice rise and steam bounce to it while baking.

I love the steam bounce and crumb from baking these breads!

Feeding my sourdough starter has become memorized task after all these yeras. I have thought that I have killed my starter a couple times over the years, but it has become mostly reliable. It does seem less active in the winter months while cooler indoors. I leave mine out on the counter out of direct sunlight.

One of my first jobs was working in a pizza joint. I continue my love of baking pizza with my sourdough baking. Check out my Deep Dish Pizza recipe.

Suggest Toppings: Pepperoni, Jalepeno, and Fresh Sliced Pineapple!

Backyard Poultry

My wife and I have a ‘hobby farm’ for us to attempt to sustainable raise food in a garden and poultry for meat. We have chickens for eggs and raised turkeys for meatbirds. I enjoyed how curious turkeys can be, however it made processing them for Thanksgiving much harder.

Left: A jake (young male turkey) presenting and struting for my wife. Right: Our turkeys being curious.

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