About me

My research focus is on doublet craters, and what they can tell us about binary asteroids in the solar system. Currently, I am looking at the fairly new datasets from the Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres. I am hoping the impact cratering record on these large asteroids can shed light on the binary asteroid populations in the Main Belt, and possibly reveal (or not) whether the number of widely-separated binaries has changed over time.

_{^{Doublet crater on 4 Vesta. Credit: NASA/JPL}}

I also am a developer of the open-source planetary GIS application JMARS (Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing). I have spent most of my time building and enhancing a custom science-planning layer in JMARS for the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission currently visiting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

I received an M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a B.S. in Computer Science from Arizona State University, and a B.A. in Anthropology, also from Arizona State. Prior to my arrival at the Mars Space Flight Facility, I spent a good many years developing various cockpit systems for commercial aircraft at companies such as Honeywell.