Welcome to my website! There's not much here, but make yourself comfortable anyways.
I am a Research Scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory out in Edwards Air Force Base, California. Whether it is a Hall-effect thruster, a flock of birds, or financial markets, I enjoy viewing the world through the lens of complex systems and nonlinear dynamics. Broadly speaking, my attention is on data-driven methods - their applications, theory, and (hopefully) implementation as Digital Twins.
My PhD is in Physics (with a specialization in Computational Science) from UC San Diego, where I was also a Teaching Assistant, Teaching Associate, and Research Assistant. My Dissertation focused on novel data assimilation methods for the prediction of chaotic nonlinear systems.
Prior to my PhD track, I pursued a Masters degree in the Computational Science, Mathematics, and Engineering (CSME) program at UC San Diego. Even longer ago, I got my undergraduate degree in Physics, also from UC San Diego. Needless to say, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time at UC San Diego.
(Last Updated: 2/11/2026)
PhD Dissertation:
The majority of my research can be summarized as time-series predictions of chaotic systems
after incorporating measurements.
From here, my research can be split pretty neatly into two categories: model-free and
model-based methods.
The model-free approach belongs under the broad umbrella of machine learning and is
known as Reservoir Computing, which was relatively new and unexplored at the time.
The model-based approach belongs under the broad umbrella of Data Assimilation. It
relies on a new paradigm of Data Assimilation where the constraint of having
time-ordered states is loosened to just time-locality. We also use a Monte Carlo based
optimizer in this approach, which was yet to be explored.
Both these methods are tackled from the perspective of Data Assimilation and the
understanding of nonlinear dynamics.
Post-PhD:
More recently, I am interested in understanding the theoretical and mathematical
underpinnings of machine learning, through the lens and intuition of
statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics.
Recurrent Neural Networks, in particular the Reservoir Computing approach, and Data
Assimilation appear to be related in a non-trivial way.
The mechanism of Generalized Synchronization is clearly involved, which seems to be
important in the development of Digital Twins.
Not only is the theory of it all interesting, but new theory - as always - can lead to
new ways of doing Data Assimilation.
My hope is to apply such a worldview to develop low-fidelity Digital Twins of complex
systems.