About

I'm originally from just outside Richmond, Virginia in the United States. I grew up swimming and playing basketball, and I transitioned to playing volleyball when I was about 12. I played for my high school's team and the Richmond Volleyball Club (RVC). I played for RVC for 5 years, and was the team captian for 4 of those years. I was awarded the "For the Love of the Game" scholarship from RVC and was a Richmond Time's Dispatch Scholar Athlete of the Year finalist. Then I completed my Bachelor's at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. While I was quite active in the physics and astronomy communities, I also played on the university's men's volleyball team for all four years, where I was the captian for two of those years. Once the pandemic began and the volleybal season was cancelled in Spring 2020, I started running for exercise, which I continue today.

Then in the the Fall of 2020, I moved to Heidelberg, Germany to begin my Ph.D. at MPIA. This was unforunately quite bad timing, as the country went into lockdown one month after I moved there. But once the country opened up again in Spring 2021, I bought a gravel bike and fell in love with cycling, both as a commute to work and as a sport / hobby. In Summer 2022, I went for a 10 day bike tour from Heidelberg to the North Sea in Amsterdam and back. I averaged riding 150km per day, and visited 4 national parks in 3 countries during the trip. More recently, I've started swimming again after a 7+ year break, and I even combined swimming with cycling and running in my first ever triathlon in July 2024 in Heidelberg.

I generally love being outdoors and moving around. Many people have compared me to an enthusiastic dog, especially when it comes to playing Frisbee. I also love spikeball, skiing / ski touring, hiking, and any activity where I can combine multiple of my hobbies. This commonly manifests itself as drinking beer on the tops of mountains.