Jason Bennett

Jason is a Fulbright scholar at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is currently working with Prof. Eric Bergshoeff towards extending the formulation of non-relativistic holography using a string-theoretical version of Newton-Cartan gravity.

Kelsi Blauvelt

Kelsi is a software engineer specializing in machine learning rapid prototyping and development at Applied Minds in Los Angeles, CA. Her undergraduate studies were in Physics and Mathematics at Albion College. When she is not researching ways in which to better understand human intelligence in computational terms, most of her free time is spent outdoors hiking, climbing, and backpacking.

Emily A. Mailhot

Emily is an adaptive optics (AO) specialist for the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. She operates the adaptive secondary mirrors for the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) in Arizona and the Magellan Clay Telescope for the MagAO system in Chile. She is also involved in the development of the adaptive secondary for the MMT Telescope to be used with the MMT Adaptive Optics exoPlanet characterization System (MAPS).

Aaron Kebede

Aaron is an undergraduate student at Lehigh University and a dean scholar. He is majoring in Physics and minoring in Astronomy and recently joined a research team lead by Professor Rosi Reed working on mapping Quark-Gluon Plasma.  

Leah Jenks

Leah is a PhD student at Brown University. She works with Dr. Stephon Alexander on a wide variety of topics at the intersections of theoretical cosmology, general relativity and high energy physics. 

Juan Hernandez

Juan is a PhD student at University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute researching the connection between entanglement and the emergence of spacetime as well as the information-theoretic structure of quantum field theories with Rob Myers. Concretely, his research area includes complexity and entanglement entropy in holographic settings as well as in some simple quantum field theories.

Amara McCune

Amara is a PhD student studying high energy theory at UCSB. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and mathematics from Stanford University, and worked on research problems in cosmology and particle physics at CERN as an undergrad. She is currently working on parity solutions to the strong CP problem and has general interests of connecting beyond the Standard Model physics to cosmological observables through studies of inflation and the cosmic microwave background. 

Brian McPeak

Brian is PhD student at the University of Michigan studying holography and quantum gravity. Currently, his interests include the Weak Gravity Conjecture, and the bootstrap approach to conformal field theories.

Somayeh Khakpash

Somayeh is a PhD student at Lehigh University. She is developing fast algorithms to classify microlensing light curves. In the era of large surveys like WFIRST, this would allow astronomers to find exoplanet candidates in a fast and efficient way.

Andrew Hanlon, PhD

Andrew is a postdoc in the theory group at the Helmholtz-Institut Mainz located on the campus of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz in Germany. His research focuses on hadron spectroscopy using lattice QCD.

Katrina Miller

Katrina is a physics PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. She has a passion for probing unsolved mysteries at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, & cosmology. Her current research focuses on neutrino cross sections in MicroBooNE as part of a larger goal to perform stringent measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters within the Short Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab.

George Halal

George is a physics Ph.D. student at Stanford University, working with Dr. Daniel Gruen and Prof. Risa Wechsler at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford. He uses machine learning and other data science techniques to develop new statistical methods for enhancing cosmological measurements.

Annika Ewigleben

Annika is a PhD student at Lehigh University, working in High Energy Nuclear Physics. She is a member of the STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on Long Island. Her research focuses on photon-jet measurements in heavy ion collisions.

Lon Blauvelt

Lon is a tolerant brother of one of the Theory Girls.

​

                                          He enjoys basking in the sun,

                                                                                                  catnip,

                                                                                                                   and long naps.

Alex Arnold

Alex Arnold is a PhD student at Lehigh University. His research interests involve pulsating stars, specifically Mira variables. His current research is using identifying and cataloging Miras in the KELT survey using machine learning methods, and investigating their potential as standard candles 

Lauren Dallachiesa

Lauren is a PhD student at Lehigh University. She studies a variety of nonlinear optical processes in both organic molecules and organic thin films. Her research focuses on characterizing and creating small-molecule vapor-deposited materials for integrated electro-optics.

Becca Robinson

Becca is a PhD Fellow at the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics at the University of Oslo in Norway. She is currently working with the Whole Sun project (ERC) and is using observations and simulations of the magnetically quiet Sun to better understand the Solar atmospheric energy budget. When she isn't contributing to solving the Solar coronal heating problem, she can be found at the bouldering gym, solo traveling, or moonlighting as a travel & finance ghost writer.

James Bonifacio, PhD

James is a postdoc at Case Western Reserve University. His research focuses on effective field theories and scattering amplitudes. He is currently interested in what the scattering of gravitons in extra dimensions can teach us about the geometry of compact manifolds.

Carrie Weidner, PhD

Carrie is a postdoc at Aarhus University in Denmark. Her research involves analog quantum simulation with ultracold bosons in a quantum gas microscope. That is, she explores analogues to interesting but hard-to-measure systems by manipulating very cold atoms on a single-atom level. She also works on theoretical quantum control and quantum education research. When not shooting lasers at things, writing code, or working with students, Carrie enjoys running, biking, playing ice hockey at the lowest possible level Denmark offers, and bothering her pet leopard gecko.

Olivia Beckwith, PhD

Olivia is a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a number theorist and primarily studies modular forms and their connections to classical analytic number theory and combinatorics. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she completed her B.S. at Harvey Mudd and her PhD at Emory. She moved to Urbana last August and lives there with her fiance Hudson and their black labrador, Homer. Outside of math, she enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and taking her dog to the park.

Erica Entrop

Personal Site

Contributing Artist for the Theory Girls' Website

Erica Entrop was born in Roswell, New Mexico and graduated Cum Laude from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque with her BFA. While attending the university, she participated in the Land Arts of the American West program through which she was able to begin defining her own style working under the guidance of artists Erika Osborne and Bill Gilbert. After completing her studies she began traveling across the
united states exhibiting in different locations always continuing to hone her own artistic voice. She has had an extensive artistic career having participated in exhibitions across the country and Cuba. Her works have recently been included in the Premier edition of Blue Bee Magazine. In the past year, she has participated in the 13th Havana Biannual and the 25th Romerias Festival showcasing her newest film works in collaboration with her partner, Cuban artist, Darwin Estacio Martinez. She lives and works in Havana.

Tia Blauvelt

Marketing Coordinator  for the Theory Girls

Tia received her B.A in Music Industry from the University of New Haven in 2019. Currently residing in Philadelphia, PA, she is looking to gain experience within the marketing community so that she can use it to jump into the music industry. Tia’s industry preferences are marketing or publishing so that she can help artists and/or songwriters get the most out of their work. She plays a few instruments including guitar, piano, and voice. Outside of music, Tia enjoys trying new coffee, baking, and playing Animal Crossing.