Astronomy

Overview

I'm a postdoctoral associate working with Professor Jamie Tayar on the rotation and activity of main-sequence stars. I completed my Ph.D. in 2022 at the University of Hawaii with Professor Jennifer van Saders. Originally from Chillicothe, Ohio, I enjoy coffee, cold weather, hiking, and board games.

Education

• Ph.D., Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2022
• M.Sc., Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2019
• B.A., Astrophysics, Ohio Wesleyan University, 2016

Research

Broadly I'm interested in the connections between stellar rotation, activity, and magnetism. To answer questions about the evolution of stellar rotation across the main sequence, I use machine learning as well as conventional methods to estimate rotation periods for stars observed by the TESS mission. I'm also interested in simulations and modeling, particularly stellar evolution models and simulating the emergence of star spots and their effects on stellar light curves. I am a big fan of open-source software; I developed and maintain kiauhoku (https://github.com/zclaytor/kiauhoku) and butterpy (https://github.com/zclaytor/butterpy) on GitHub.

Selected Publications

• "Recovery of TESS Stellar Rotation Periods Using Deep Learning" (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022ApJ...927..219C/abstract)
• "Chemical Evolution in the Milky Way: Rotation-based Ages for APOGEE-Kepler Cool Dwarf Stars" (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020ApJ...888...43C/abstract)
• "A Guide to Realistic Uncertainties on the Fundamental Properties of Solar-type Exoplanet Host Stars" (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022ApJ...927...31T/abstract)

Areas of Expertise

• Stellar Rotation
• Stellar Characterization
• Machine Learning