Taylor Knapp Email & Phone Number

Pasadena, Ca, Us

Pasadena, California, United States

Graduate student researcher with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Simulating Extreme Spacetimes (SXS) collaborations working on improving precessing and eccentric binary black hole waveform models to better understand binary object formation mechanisms and LIGO’s detections.

Monroe, North Carolina, United States

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

I am continuing my research work in Prof. Ian Dell'antonio's Weak Gravitational Lensing Astrophysics group to complete my senior thesis. I am using component characteristics of galaxies within low-redshift galaxy clusters to determine the mass profiles of galaxy clusters. Using various characteristics for calculations, such as infall-velocity and tangential lensing shear, I hope to compare mass profiles and defining features for either approach.

Providence, Rhode Island Area

As President of the class of 2023, I help organize student events both on and off-campus to encourage camaraderie amongst the class. As an organization, CCB aims to establish a cohesive student community and an enjoyable student experience at Brown. I served as Secretary for 2019-2020 and President for 2020-2022.

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Utilizes computational analysis to investigate the mass distribution of galaxy clusters by intaking raw images and producing mass maps considering weak lensing induced by large mass concentrations, concentrating on the relation between age of the cluster and resident stars to relate to dark matter distribution patterns

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Studied the higher dimensional concentrations and behaviors of thermodynamic systems comparable to the lower dimensions experienced in the physical world under the instruction of a mathematics graduate student

Providence, Rhode Island Area

Alongside a graduate pure mathematics student, another undergraduate and I explored the implications of topological properties on various topological objects, particularly the torus. We built up the tools to explore the Teichmuller Space and its relationship to equivalence classes of tori.

I'm so proud and honored to have been elected an Associate Zone Councilor for the National Society of Physics Students (SPS) and Sigma Pi Sigma Honor Society. I look forward to representing student perspectives on the national council, attending National Council Meetings, working with zone councilors & zone chapters, and collaborating with this amazing team to continue making the physics community a supportive and inclusive place!

Pasadena, California, United States

This past summer, I worked as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) at LIGO Caltech. Here, I collaborated with my incredible mentors Drs. Arianna Renzini and Patrick Meyers under PI Dr. Alan Weinstein to complete data analysis on gravitational waves. My focus was on developing a generalized and generic fitter for gravitational wave energy spectra. I then did a case study on recovering the merger density via redshift rate for binary black holes (BBHs) from simulated energy density spectra. Hopefully this tool will go towards better understanding and fitting gravitational wave background sources for future LIGO observing runs. I am very fortunate and grateful to have had this experience in-person at Caltech and I look forward to staying connected to this incredible network of physicists.

Menlo Park, California, United States

Remotely, I conducted research on the Point Spread Function (PSF), the translation between the observed and actual shape of objects taken in deep space surveys. I optimized the 16 parameters describing the atmospheric and optical aberrations to the stellar wavefronts detected by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to explore what a better fitting PSF meant. I also explored the systematic error contributions to the PSF and began to determine the values of the systematic error. I worked under my mentor Prof. Aaron Roodman at SLAC and Stanford as a part of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. This internship was funded by the Department of Energy through the SULI program.

Providence, Rhode Island Area

Develops and implements multivariable calculus curriculum and assignments to a small class of high school students to prepare them for higher collegiate mathematics in a rigorous, proof-based course

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Led tutoring and help sessions for peers to better understand physical concepts, set up labs for classes and assisted with managing student assignments

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

I taught an Introduction to Quantum Mechanics seminar course with another student. We fabricated the syllabus from scratch, reading textbooks and perusing online courseware to determine which math and physics topics were sufficient to provide a foundation for more complex physics. This seminar met once a week for approximately an hour.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

I collaborated with a group of skilled Physics professors and students in the Duke University Neutrino and Cosmology Group to investigate the behavior of neutrinos when generated from a black hole or neutrino star merger. I utilized various softwares and programming languages (SNOwGLoBes, Superscan, C++, C) to analyze data. After investigating the data and compiling into a report, I was able to detect trends in the neutrino behavior based on various detectors and synthesizing the results (Super Kamioka detector configurations).

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

I researched the interaction of millimeter waves (a rare frequency of wave due to small range and difficulty of production) with semiconductor materials. These semiconductor materials (gamma-irradiated silicon and sythesized organic compounds) are candidates for photovoltaic materials. We investigated the millimeter wave interactions to gain more insight into which properties are able to be maximized.

Applied and completed an online course on machine learning and modern-day computation through MIT

Phd, Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Education record

Final Weighted GPA: 4.803