About
Hi, I’m Jim.
I’m a PhD candidate in Physics at The Pennsylvania State University, specializing in General Relativity, Differential Geometry, and High-Performance Computing.
As an applied theorist, my research bridges the gap between abstract geometric structures and the rigorous demands of real-time signal analysis. While my primary focus is on gravitational wave astronomy, I am broadly interested in how the tools of mathematical physics, specifically principal bundles and differential forms, can be leveraged to solve practical engineering problems in noise characterization.
Background
The through-line of my career has been a fascination with geometry, not just as a mathematical tool, but as the fundamental language of physical law.
This interest began during my time at the United States Naval Academy. While the Academy instilled in me a respect for mission-driven engineering, I found myself drawn to the theoretical machinery underneath. Mentorship under Prof. Christopher Morgan, a submarine officer turned astrophysicist, introduced me to the study of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and helped me realize that my contribution to the mission would come from the chalkboard rather than the conning tower.
I transferred to UT Austin to pursue this depth, pivoting to pure physics and mathematics. There, I immersed myself in the study of dynamical systems and the geometry of phase space, furthering the understanding of dynamics as geometry.
Prior to my doctoral studies, I spent several years as a quantitative developer at HBK Capital Management. This period was an apprenticeship in software architecture. Designing low-latency, distributed C++/Python systems taught me that elegant theory requires robust implementation. I learned to view code not as a mere script for calculation, but as an architecture that must manage complexity and scale.
Current Work
At Penn State, I have returned to theory to apply this industrial rigor to fundamental questions in gravity. My work seeks to bring the precision of differential geometry and the robustness of software engineering to the study of the universe.
I often find myself venturing into pure mathematical subjects motivated by physical applications, including commutative algebras and information geometry. To foster this interdisciplinary dialogue, I co-founded the Mathematical Aspects of Physics (MAP) seminar, a series designed to connect the Math and Physics departments and explore the deep structures underlying our physical theories.
For more details on my research, see the Research page.