Teaching & Mentoring
Teaching
I teach undergraduate courses in the Astronomy & Astrophysics department at UC San Diego. I have also lectured and authored course materials for several courses at other institutions; selected courses are listed below.
UC San Diego
- ASTR 2: Galaxies and the Universe (Spring 2025, Spring 2026; upcoming Winter 2027)
- ASTR 122: Physical Cosmology (Winter 2026, Fall 2026)
University of Southern California
- Advanced Cosmology (lecturer for Structure Formation & Galaxies)
UC Davis
- A Cosmology Workbook (authored Structure Formation and Galaxy Formation)
UC Santa Barbara
- Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (teaching assistant, authored solution manual)
- Linear Algebra with Applications (held bi-weekly tutorials, authored supplementary lecture notes)
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)
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 mentees at other institutions are listed below; for students who have worked in my UC San Diego group, see my group page.
Graduate students
- Niusha Ahvazi, UC Riverside / Carnegie → UVA: Semi-analytic modeling of dwarf galaxy formation and evolution (N. Ahvazi et al. 2024)
- Wendy Crumrine, USC: Constraining dark matter–radiation interactions with small-scale structure (W. Crumrine et al. 2025; W. Crumrine et al. 2026)
- Tara Dacunha, Stanford: Satellite galaxy disruption and stellar stream modeling
- Elise Darragh-Ford, Stanford: Dwarf galaxy searches using Gaia; Milky Way structure (E. Darragh-Ford et al. 2021)
- Trey Driskell, USC → Anduril: Semi-analytic modeling of structure and galaxy formation (T. Driskell et al. 2022)
- Noah Glennon, UNH: Soliton orbital evolution in self-interacting ultralight dark matter (N. Glennon et al. 2022; N. Glennon et al. 2024)
- Demao Kong, UC Riverside: SIDM subhalo populations in Milky Way and strong lens analogs (D. Kong et al. 2025; D. Kong et al. 2026)
- Sidney Mau, Stanford: Constraining the dark matter particle lifetime with ultra-faint dwarfs (S. Mau et al. 2022)
- Siddhesh Raut, USC / Carnegie: Self-interacting dark matter halo gravothermal evolution (S. Raut et al. 2026)
- Yunchong (Richie) Wang, Stanford → Jump Trading: Empirically modeling dwarf galaxy star formation histories (Y. Wang et al. 2021; Y. Wang et al. 2024; Y. Wang et al. 2025)
- James Wen, USC: Hydrodynamic simulations of dark matter–baryon interactions
- Xingyu Zhang, Tsinghua → UC Riverside: Stellar stream perturbers as SIDM subhalos (X. Zhang et al. 2025; X. Zhang et al. 2026)
Undergraduate, post-baccalaureate & high school students
- Deveshi Buch, Stanford: Constrained cosmological simulations of Milky Way analogs (Milky Way-est) (D. Buch et al. 2024)
- Shuxing Fang, USC: Large Magellanic Cloud infall in SIDM cosmologies
- Abigail Lee, UPenn → UChicago → Berkeley: Universality of subhalo disruption from Milky Way to cluster scales
- Nyal McCrea, CWU (Simons–NSBP Scholar): Visualizing subhalo evolution in hydrodynamic simulations
- Ellen Min, Caltech: Python tools for Galacticus
- Nicel Mohamed-Hinds, Stanford → University of Washington: Modeling subhalo disruption in hydrodynamic simulations
- Ezra Msolla, UToronto (Simons–NSBP Scholar): Neutrino self-interactions and cosmic structure
- Veronica Pratt, Stanford → Tufts: LMC analogs in the SAGA Survey
- Juan Quiroz, Caltech: Subhalo evolution in decaying dark matter cosmologies
- Derek Rodriguez, USC Hybrid High School → UCLA: Subhalos and host halo structure in Symphony
- Resherle Verna, USC → UT Austin: Subhalo and splashback mass functions in SIDM hydro simulations
- Logan White, NCSU (Simons–NSBP Scholar): Growth of structure in warm, interacting, and fuzzy dark matter