Hello, Hello, Hello,

I'm Rowan.

Planetary Scientist,

Physicist,

Developer.

PROJECTS PROJECTS PROJECTS

I've been busy.

Here's a few things I've been working on (and a figure from each).

Symplectic Integrator in Python

Developed a Symplectic Integrator to model planetary systems using Democratic Heliocentric coordinates and the Wisdom-Holman method. The project, completed in Python with NumPy, allowed for accurate simulations of orbital dynamics over long timescales.

a 3d Chart of outer planet orbits.

Simulating Europa's Stresses for cycloid formation

Simulated Europa’s tidal stresses to investigate how its unique surface features, like cycloids, might form. This Python-based project, inspired by the works of Gregory Hoppa and Alyssa Rhoden, included writing a report detailing the methodology and results.

a map of Europa with stress magnitudes labeled.

Reflected-light spectroscopy w/ PICASO

At Purdue’s Johnson Cloud Lab, I used the Python-based PICASO package to model the reflected-light phase curves of exoplanets, focusing on GJ1214b and Kepler-7b. I also contributed directly to improving the package on GitHub. This project provided hands-on experience in coding for scientific research and modeling planetary atmospheres.

a figure from the Hamill et al. Paper

Mapping Europa's lineae with OpenCV

This was a short project I did for fun, in relation to NASA's Europa Clipper mission. I used opencv to isolate and help identify lineae on Europa's surface. Give how lineae appear at many different scales, and the data we have is currently sparce, it was a fun challenge. Currently, I'm working on a branch of the project using CNNs, and a branch using Linear Directional Means.

a map of Europa with opencv filters & edge detection applied.
HOBBIES HOBBIES HOBBIES

Here's a quick list of things I enjoy:

Game Development

Reading

Dungeons & Dragons

Web development

Astrophotography

SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE

I'm involved with research.

Hamill, C. D., Johnson, A. V., Batalha, N., Nag, R. , Gao, P., Adams, D., & Kataria, T. (2024). Reflected-light Phase Curves with PICASO: A Kepler-7b Case Study. The Astrophysical Journal, 976(2), 181. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad7de6
CONTACT CONTACT CONTACT

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