Bio


Born and raised on Kauai, I studied Mathematics and Physics at New College of Florida and received my bachelor's degree in 2000. I did my graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, studying high intensity laser plasma science. After receiving my PhD in 2007 I stayed at UT and joined the Center for High Energy Density Laser Science, as a postdoctoral researcher and scientist, heading the experimental systems of the Texas Petawatt Laser. During this time I also worked at National Energetics designing and building commercial high power laser systems. Inspired by the revolutionary potential of hard X-ray FELs in the field of HED plasma physics I joined LCLS as the MEC department head in 2017.