Fun

I do things that aren’t science!

Knitting

I make things with sticks and string! I’m always open to “free commissions” from friends - you pay for the materials and tell me what you want, and I’ll make it for you!

If you’re into such things, I can be found on Ravelry as FiberFiend6891 (login required). I was religious about posting projects up through early undergrad and then only recently started documenting them again…

Athletics

I’m an endurance sports nut - running, cycling, swimming, rowing, hiking, really anything (ideally outdoors) to keep the heart rate up for a couple of hours. I raced on the Yale Bulldog Cycling team as an undergrad and now serve as the treasurer of the MIT Triathlon Club. I’m the proud (if very slow) finisher of two marathons, two Half-Iron distance triathlons (one done solo during the COVID pandemic), and one Ironman! I was also the third place finisher at the Quasquicentennial Birch-Jolly swim on Lake Winnipesaukee in July 2018. Yes, this is exactly as prestigious as it sounds to you.

Music

I’m also a violinist. I played in symphony orchestras for awhile, but my true loves are pit orchestras (I’ve done a lot of musicals and operettas) and chamber music (played for fun and also sometimes for money). I’m classically trained but love to dabble in various forms of traditional music; I have the most experience in the fiddles styles of the British Isles and Canada.

Once upon a time, my research group had a band! You can see some terrible-quality videos from our (one and only) gig here, here, here, or here.

In the musical subcategory of “utterly wonderful silliness,” you can also check out this tribute to Prof. Meg Urry, the then-outgoing chair of the Yale Physics Department when I was a senior.