The resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope allows us to resolve the stellar populations of galaxies throughout the local universe. I am involved in the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury (ANGST) and am leading the data reduction efforts for the Archive of Nearby Galaxies: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (ANGRRR) archival HST survey. These surveys are enabling the determination and comparison of the star formation histories of galaxies within ~4 Mpc of the Milky Way. For more information on this project, click here.

I am part of a team that is investigating the structure, kinematics, and metallicity of the Andromeda Galaxy's newly discovered extended stellar halo. Using the DEIMOS spectrograph on the Keck telescope, we are able to isolate Red Giant Branch stars in Andromeda from dwarf stars in our own galaxy. This allows us to explore the halo of the Andromeda galaxy out to very large radial distances. I am particularly interested in probing the amount and characteristics of substructure in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy, and comparing our observations to what is predicted from simulations of the formation of galactic halos. Please click here for more information on this project.