Team
Principal Investigator
Dr. V. Ashley Villar
Dr. V leads the TDA Data Lab! If you are interested in joining the group, please learn more here.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Yize Dong
Yize studies the progenitors of Type Ibn supernovaeāstripped-envelope explosions interacting with helium-rich circumstellar material. He also works on foundation models for supernovae, with a focus on incorporating host galaxy context to improve physical inference.
Dr. Anya Nugent
Anya studies the host galaxies of supernovae and other transients, using large samples to uncover connections between transient types and their progenitor systems.
Graduate Students
Sissi Chen
Sissi leads observational studies of stripped, interacting supernovae.
Kaylee de Soto
Kaylee develops machine learning methods to classify supernovae in real time. Most recently, she has used these classification algorithms to understand hydrogen-rich (Type II) core-collapse supernovae.
Ken Shen
Ken uses continous time-series models to understand active galactic nuclei.
Anna Tartaglia
Anna uses machine learning and radiative transfer simulations to study kilonova populations and the observability of GRB thermal counterparts with LSST. As an undergraduate, she developed methods to detect precursor emission from core-collapse supernovae.
S. Karthik Yadavalli
Karthik uses a combination of observational and machine learning methodologies to understand stripped-envelope supernovae. Most recently, he works on new emulation techniques for radiative transfer simulations of stripped-envelope supernovae.
Undergraduate Students
- Joaquin de Castro (Harvard)
- Adam Boesky (Harvard)
- Charis Graham (CMU)
Lab Mascot
Apollo
Our beloved lab mascot and good boy! š
Alumni
We are grateful for the contributions of our former lab members:
- Callie Garcia
- Christine Gyure
- Mohammed Sakib
- Zion Smith
- Sebastian Attlan
- Ricardo Yarza
- Sarai Rankin
- Prajna Nair
- Conor Ransome
- Danielle Frostig
- Alex Gagliano
