Mentoring & Teaching

Mentoring

Mentoring a diverse group of students on research in astrophysics and cosmology is an important part of my scientific practice. My graduate and undergraduate mentorship experiences are listed below:

Graduate students

• Niusha Ahvazi, UCR/Carnegie: Semi-analytic modeling of dwarf galaxy formation and evolution (N. Ahvazi, A. Benson, L. Sales, E. O. Nadler et al. 2024);

• Wendy Crumrine, USC: Constraining dark matter–radiation interactions with small-scale structure;

• Elise Darragh-Ford, Stanford: Dwarf galaxy searches using Gaia (E. Darragh-Ford, E. O. Nadler et al. 2021);

• Trey Driskell, USC: Semi-analytic modeling of structure and galaxy formation (T. Driskell, E. O. Nadler et al. 2022);

• Noah Glennon, University of New Hampshire: Soliton orbital evolution in self-interacting ultra-light dark matter (N. Glennon, E. O. Nadler et al. 2022, N. Glennon, N. Musoke, E. O. Nadler et al. 2024);

• Karime Maamari, USC: Cosmological + hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation featuring dark matter–baryon scattering;

• Sidney Mau, Stanford: Constraining the dark matter particle lifetime using ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (S. Mau, E. O. Nadler et al. 2022);

• Yunchong (Richie) Wang, Stanford: Empirically modeling dwarf galaxy star formation histories (Y. Wang, E. O. Nadler et al. 2021, 2024).

Undergraduate, Post-baccalaureate, & High School students

• Deveshi Buch, Stanford: Constrained cosmological simulation suite of Milky Way analogs (D. Buch, E. O. Nadler et al. 2024);

• Shuxing Fang, USC: Large Magellanic Cloud infall in self-interacting dark matter cosmologies;

• Abigail Lee, University of Pennsylvania → University of Chicago: Universality of subhalo disruption from Milky Way to galaxy cluster scales;

• Nyal McCrea, Central Washington Unversity (Simons-NSBP Scholar): Visualizing subhalo evolution in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations;

• Ellen Min, Caltech: Code development and Python implementation for Galacticus;

• Nicel Mohamed-Hinds, Stanford → University of Washington: Modeling subhalo disruption in hydrodynamic cosmological simulations;

• Veronica Pratt, Stanford → Tufts: Large Magellanic Cloud analogs in the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs Survey;

• Juan Quiroz, Caltech: Semi-analytically modeling subhalo evolution in decaying dark matter cosmologies;

• Derek Rodriguez, USC Hybrid High School → UCLA: Subhalo evolution and dark matter host halo structure in the Symphony simulations;

• Resherle Verna, USC → UT Austin: Evolution of the subhalo and splashback mass function in hydrodynamic simulations of self-interacting dark matter;

• Logan White, NCSU (Simons-NSBP Scholar): Growth of structure in warm, interacting, and fuzzy dark matter.

Teaching

I have assisted with several undergraduate and graduate physics courses, including as a guest lecturer and author of course materials. Highlights include:

University of Southern California

• Advanced Cosmology (lecturer for Structure Formation & Galaxies)

University of California, Davis

• A Cosmology Workbook (authored Structure Formation, Galaxy Formation).

Stanford University

• Structure and Galaxy Formation (teaching assistant, lecturer for Halo Substructure, authored notebooks on Spherical Collapse, Halo Profiles, Self-interacting Dark Matter, and the Milky Way Halo);
• Modern Astrophysics (teaching assistant, authored solution manual);
• Cosmology & Extragalactic Astrophysics (teaching assistant, lecturer for Galaxy Formation & Evolution);
• Origin & Development of the Cosmos (teaching assistant, authored homework and exam problems).

University of California, Santa Barbara

• Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (teaching assistant, authored solution manual);
• Linear Algebra with Applications (held bi-weekly tutorials, authored supplementary lecture notes).