about

$ whoami

Hello, I’m Nathan—an aerospace engineering PhD student at Texas A&M University. My graduate research involves the application of laser diagnostics to fusion plasmas, high-enthalpy hypersonic environments, and combustion, but I maintain an interest in various other fields to avoid pigeonholing myself too much.

Professional

Fission research is pretty exciting these days, and I’ve always had a soft spot for nuclear power, so the renewed development of molten salt and small-scale reactors is nice to see. This summer, I actually have the pleasure of working at Idaho National Laboratory, where I’ll be developing and applying laser spectroscopic techniques for MSRs. I’m also rather optimistic about the future of fusion, certainly helped with all the private capital that seems to be entering the market now, and I hope we’ll actually have a reactor on the grid within the next ten years. High-speed propulsion (ram/scramjets, RDEs, etc.) is another neat field, and I’d like to learn more about the state of the art when I have time to do so. In case you’re interested, here’s my LinkedIn profile .

Personal

If it wasn’t already obvious from the content of this website, two of my interests include tinkering with Linux and typesetting various things in $\LaTeX$. A longer-term hobby involves attempting to teach myself the concepts underpinning graduate-level physics (e.g., tensor calculus, differential geometry, geometric algebra, group theory, gauge theory, etc.), which at least maintains a marginal overlap with my professional aspirations. Looking back, I should have worked towards a BS in physics rather than engineering, but that ship has sailed. More recently, I’ve been delving a little into linguistics and language more generally; studying Latin, ancient Greek, and Russian are on the docket at some point. Calisthenics and running are my exercises of choice to ward off my predisposition for a completely sedentary lifestyle. Other things I enjoy include playing guitar, browsing Wikipedia, and using Google Earth to explore areas I think are worth visiting. Despite my slightly ostentatious showcase of all the books in my personal library, I read far less than I should.