Mentoring & training

Mentorship & Supervision

Students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting researchers I have supervised and mentored, along with how to join our group.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

For centuries, explicit and implicit discrimination have barred individuals from many backgrounds from participating fully and freely in science. As scientists and people, we have a duty to address these injustices to better both our profession and society at large. I endeavor to create a community in which all members feel that their diverse backgrounds can be an integral part of their identity as a scientist rather than something that excludes them from being a valued member of the scientific community.

Open and Accessible Science

I am a strong proponent of open, accessible, and reproducible science. When conducting research, my collaborators and I make an active effort to share our results along with public data products, interactive visualizations, and open-source code that remains public throughout its development and well-documented when released to the wider community.

85Total mentees
15Active group
9Postdoctoral fellows
18Graduate students
70Alumni
Mentorship by career stageactive vs. alumni cohorts
Postdocs8 active9
Doctoral6 active14
Master's4
Undergraduates1 active57
Secondary school1
Undergraduate pathwaysby fellowship & course
SURP · SUDS · CITA SURF23
Senior Thesis15
Research Course10
Junior Thesis7
A&S ROP, Co-op & Visiting13

Current Group Members 15

Active postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students, and undergraduate researchers

Postdocs 8

Fall 2024–Present · Postdoc · Primary Supervisor

Reconstructing recent star formation history using Gaia and SDSS-V data of young stars

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Doctoral 6

Fall 2024–Present · Doctoral · Co-Supervisor

Leo Watson

Statistical learning, quantum computing, and MCMC methods for astronomical Bayesian inference

Co-supervised with Radu Craiu (Statistical Sciences)

Role PhD candidate

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Undergraduates 1

Summer 2026–Present · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Leo (Hanbang) Wu

alphaUniverse: The AI Virtual Observatory

Co-supervised with Biprateep Dey · Nolan Koblischke

Role Undergraduate student

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Former Mentees & Alumni 70

Past group members and where they went next

Postdocs 1

Fall 2023–Fall 2025 · Postdoc · Primary Supervisor

Building AI foundation models to interpret astronomical images

Placement Joined Wayve to work on AI in industry

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Doctoral 8

Fall 2022–2026 · Doctoral · Co-Supervisor

Mairead Heiger

Galactic chemical evolution using metal-poor stars and dwarf galaxies with hierarchical modeling

Co-supervised with Ting Li (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Placement Joint GECO and CosmicAI Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Summer 2024 · Doctoral · Secondary Supervisor

Deep learning applications to stellar spectra and foundation models for astronomical data

Co-supervised with Jo Bovy (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Placement Senior AI Scientist at CIBC

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Winter 2021–Winter 2023 · Doctoral · Informal Supervisor

Data-driven mathematical models of the Milky Way Galaxy using asteroseismology with multitaper methods

Co-supervised with Gwen Eadie (Astronomy & Astrophysics / Statistical Sciences) · Jo Bovy (Astronomy & Astrophysics) · Sebastian Jaimungal (Statistical Sciences)

Placement LSST Discovery Alliance Catalyst Postdoctoral Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy; Incoming Assistant Professor at Penn State University

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor

Master's 4

Winter 2026 · Master's · Primary Supervisor

Philip Loewen

Understanding Architectural Biases in Neural Time Series Models

Research Course

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2025–Winter 2026 · Master's · Primary Supervisor

Isabelle (Liyuan) Huang

Time Series Forecasting with Deep Markov Models

Placement Joined PhD program at University of Toronto, continuing with me

Research Course

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Undergraduates 56Organized by program pathway · click any category to expand/collapse

Theses & Research Courses (Senior Thesis · Junior Thesis · Research Course)31

Fall 2025–Summer 2026 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Chuxuan Ai

Hamiltonian Optimization and Sampling for Deep Learning; Exploring the Chaotic Dynamics of Repelling-Attracting Hamiltonian Monte Carlo Systems

Co-supervised with Ricardo Baptista

DSI SUDSSenior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2026 · Undergraduate · Secondary Supervisor

Tristan Fattedad

Photometric redshift calibration for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Co-supervised with Biprateep Dey (Statistical Sciences)

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2026 · Undergraduate · Secondary Supervisor

Sargun Jassal

Surveying Ultra-Low-Mass Stellar Populations in the Solar Neighborhood

Co-supervised with Ronan Kerr (Dunlap Institute)

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Winter 2026 · Undergraduate · Secondary Supervisor

Isabella Rivera

Tracing Star Formation Histories and Evolution in Rho Ophiuchi

Co-supervised with Ronan Kerr (Dunlap Institute)

Research Course

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Winter 2026 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Mehmet Bükücü

Galaxy evolution with a single star?

Research Course

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2025 · Undergraduate · Secondary Supervisor

Mayesha Rahaman

Kinematic and Demographic Analysis of the SCYA-89 Stellar Association

Co-supervised with Ronan Kerr (Dunlap Institute)

Research Course

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Summer 2025 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Matthew Kustec

Exploring Galaxy Assembly Histories Across Cosmological Simulations

Co-supervised with Alicia Savelli (CITA)

Placement Joined BEd program at Queen's University

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Patrice Yee

Population Demographics of Exoplanets and their Host Stars

Junior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Jimmy Yang

Population Demographics of Exoplanets and their Host Stars

Junior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Xinpeng Xing

Population Demographics of Exoplanets and their Host Stars

Junior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Wanshi Liang

Population Demographics of Exoplanets and their Host Stars

Junior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Yonatan Eyob

Population Demographics of Exoplanets and their Host Stars

Junior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Maximilian Zabrodski

Multiple Stellar Populations: Observations, Origins, and Onetime Solutions

Co-supervised with Steffani Grondin (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Junior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2023–Winter 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Qianyu "Rita" Fan

Latent Parameter Inference with Probabilistic Dimensionality Reduction

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2022–Summer 2023 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Probabilistic Dimensionality Reduction Methods for Stellar Chemodynamics

Placement Joined MSc program at Western University working with Peter Brown

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Winter 2023 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Exploring Definitions of Milky Way Analogues with Cosmological Simulations

Co-supervised with Alicia Savelli (CITA)

Research Course

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Winter 2020–Summer 2022 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Estimating Stellar Parameters using 220M Gaia DR3 BP/RP Spectra; Disentangling Stellar Age Estimates from Galactic Chemodynamical Evolution; Estimating the Mass of the Milky Way with the H3 Survey

Co-supervised with Neige Frankel (CITA) · J. Ted Mackereth (CITA) · Gwen Eadie (Astronomy & Astrophysics / Statistical Sciences) · Norm Murray (CITA) · Dennis Zaritsky (University of Arizona)

Placement Joined PhD program at Princeton University

Research CourseSenior Thesis

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow

Fall 2020–Summer 2022 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Mingxuan Teng

Detecting and Characterizing Outliers in Machine Learning Applications

Co-supervised with Renée Hložek (Dunlap Institute)

Placement Joined Huawei

A&A SURPResearch Course

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow

Fall 2021–Winter 2022 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Charlie Hughes

Estimating Photometric Metallicities with DECam and S5

Co-supervised with Ting Li (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor

Fall 2021–Winter 2022 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Daniel Ding

Latent Space Decompositions of APOGEE Spectra

Co-supervised with Jo Bovy (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Placement Joined Amazon

Senior Thesis

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor

Summer Research Fellowships (A&A SURP · DSI SUDS · CITA SURF)13

Summer 2026 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Yasir Alsugair

Hamiltonian Optimization and Sampling for Deep Learning

Co-supervised with Ricardo Baptista

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2024 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Weizhi "Luke" Shen

Galactic Paleontology with Probabilistic Machine Learning

Co-supervised with Ting Li (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Placement Joined Master's Program in Science Technology at UPenn

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2024 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Semoore Tijani

Making the next generation of 3D Interstellar Medium Dust Temperature Maps

Co-supervised with Ioana Zelko (CITA)

A&A SURPAurora Borealis Fellow

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2023 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Eshal Ahmed

Exploring Galaxy Assembly Histories Across Cosmological Simulations

Co-supervised with Alicia Savelli (CITA)

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

A&S ROP, Co-op & Independent Research12

Fall 2025–Winter 2026 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Diego Martinez Noriega

Estimating Stellar Abundances Across Surveys using Probabilistic Deep Learning

Co-supervised with Ting Li (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2024 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Cissy Kuang

Exploring Galaxy Evolution in Cosmological Simulations with Machine Learning

Co-supervised with Alicia Savelli (CITA)

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2023 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Guiping Zhao

Deriving Stellar Properties with Spectrophotometric Modelling

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Fall 2022 · Undergraduate · Primary Supervisor

Applications of Bayesian Predictive Model Comparison in Astronomy

Placement Joined MSc program in Statistics at University of Toronto

Supervised as: Assistant Professor

Summer 2019–Fall 2020 · Undergraduate · Co-Supervisor

Kaustav Das

Constraining the Distance to the North Polar Spur

Co-supervised with Catherine Zucker (Harvard University)

Placement Joined PhD program in Astrophysics at Caltech

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow

Secondary school 1

Fall 2021–Winter 2022 · Secondary school · Primary Supervisor

Estimating Galaxy Properties from Images with Probabilistic Deep Learning

Placement Joined Georgia Institute of Technology for Computer Science undergraduate studies

Supervised as: Postdoctoral Fellow