01, Research
Working at the intersection of computational physics and applied mathematics, building numerical solvers, analysing observational data from the universe's most extreme events.
View Code on GitHub →MSc thesis at Imperial College London, supervised by Prof. Colin Cotter: implemented and compared two numerical methods for the 1D-1V Vlasov-Poisson plasma system in Firedrake, a multistream grid-particle approximation and an independent 2D reference solver, connected by a moment-based comparison pipeline I built using a mesh-immersion technique.
The thesis characterises where the multistream approximation breaks down: accuracy plateaus around three to four streams and becomes unstable at longer simulation times.
Prior coursework spanning Vector Calculus, Divergence theorem, Finite Element Analysis, Parital Differential Equations (see academics), building the theoretical foundation for computational research.
Self-directed projects, separate from the supervised MSc thesis work above, computational astrophysics built independently across gravitational waves, exoplanets, stellar surveys, and cosmology.
Gravitational Waves · LIGO
Analysis of the first gravitational wave detection from a binary neutron star merger. Raw strain data, bandpassing, whitening, spectrogram, extracting the chirp signal from instrumental noise. GW170817 was also detected in gamma rays 1.7 seconds later: the first multi-messenger astrophysics event.
Exoplanet Atmospheres · JWST
Built a complete retrieval pipeline on real JWST transmission spectroscopy data. Forward model, chi-squared likelihood, 100×100 grid search over CO₂ and water abundance, posterior landscape. Upgraded to HITRAN molecular line data via RADIS, replacing toy Gaussians with real quantum transitions from the absorption database used by POSEIDON and petitRADTRANS.
Variable Stars · Cepheids
Period-luminosity analysis of Cepheid variable stars in the LMC and Andromeda, reconstructing Henrietta Leavitt's ruler of the universe. Period-finding on real light curves, phase-folding, calibrated distance modulus. The same method that established the universe is expanding.
Exoplanet Characterisation · Kepler
End-to-end characterisation pipeline: radius from transit depth, mass from radial velocity, bulk density, equilibrium temperature. Applied to Kepler-10b (8.35 g/cm³, denser than iron, surface at 1965K) and Kepler-442b (5.27 g/cm³, Earth-like density, genuine habitable zone candidate). Validated against published values.
Stellar Spectroscopy · GALAH
Analysis of stellar abundances from the GALAH survey, tracing r-process element enrichment (barium, europium) in metal-poor halo stars. Real FITS spectra across four wavelength arms. The r-process forges heavy elements in neutron star mergers: the same events LIGO detects as gravitational waves.
Stellar Surveys · Gaia
HR diagram, metallicity distributions, proper motion analysis and sky distribution of metal-poor stars from the Gaia catalogue. Probing the ancient stellar population of the Milky Way halo, the oldest stars in the galaxy.
Cosmology · Hubble Tension
Computed the Hubble constant from first principles and explored the dark energy equation of state parameter w. Compared CMB-derived and late-universe measurements, the Hubble tension is one of the most significant open problems in cosmology right now.
Particle Astrophysics
Modelling neutrino detection from a core-collapse supernova, the brief, intense burst that carries 99% of a supernova's energy. Signal above background, detection probability, the physics of why neutrinos arrived from SN1987A three hours before the light.