About

Alex is a graduate student in astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studies chemistry in the early universe and problems in data science and cosmology. Alex has been an Astronomy Ambassador with the American Astronomical Society and with Universe Awareness, and interned at the Office of Astronomy for Development in South Africa. He is particularly interested with astronomy education around the world, and how tactile and cultural aids can make international outreach programs more successful. Currently, Alex develops sonification tools for gravitational wave and kilonovae data.

Past Activities

- Creating astronomy workshop for Danville Correctional Center with the Education Justice Project. 2019.
- Designed and led sound-based astronomy exhibit in Goa, India, "Sounds of the Spectrum". 2017 (methods presented at Communicating Astronomy With the Public 2018, Japan)
- Oversaw stargazing events in Los Alamos as Universe Awareness ambassador. 2017-2018.
- Gave TEDx talk on light pollution, "Looking out to Look In". 2016
-Lectured and hosted stargazing nights in French at Berthe et Jean, Libreville, Gabon. 2016.
-Undergraduate internship analyzing Hubble data, Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory. 2015 (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/hubble-uncovers-thousands-of-globular-star-clusters-scattered-among-galaxies)
-Created an educational biology game for elementary school program of ~300 students at the Virginia Biocomplexity Institute, 2015.