I’m Michelle, a PostDoctoral Scholar at UCLA. I grew up in Southern California, but went to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana for college, where I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Honors Physics and Mathematics, with a concentration in Astrophysics. While at Notre Dame, I worked with Professor J. Christopher Howk studying the Warm Ionized Medium of our galaxy through spectroscopy.

From there, I completed my Masters of Science working with Professor Alice Shapley on Lyman Alpha emitting galaxies at a redshift of 1.8.

My Ph.D. Thesis is titled "Super Star Clusters and Their Formation, Effects, and Evolution in CO with ALMA," and was completed in 2018.

I am currently working with Professor Jean Turner studying highly efficient star formation and the effects of star formation on the star forming cloud in the millimeter and submillimeter. My research interests include star formation, dust creation, and feedback.

While I spend most of my time working on research, when I am not doing that I enjoy cooking, reading, singing, playing piano and oboe, and doing yoga. I also enjoy exploring some of what LA has to offer – hiking, seeing plays and musicals, and enjoying the LA Philharmonic all year long. I also love travelling and look forward to getting to combine work and play with observatory trips.