My interests fall within two categories: (1) novel instrumentation for mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry, and (2) experimental studies of hypervelocity microparticle impacts.

Mass spectrometry is rapidly becoming a large field, with applications in nearly every branch of science. As the diversity of applications increases, so also does the assortment of mass analyzers, ionization methods, and components in general. Our group develops and studies novel methods of making mass spectrometric measurements in challenging environments, including spacecraft instruments, high energy density experiments, and challenging biodetection scenarios. We also explore issues associated with miniaturization and microfabrication of mass analyzers and spectrometers.

Impacts of microparticles at very high velocities (greater than a few km/s) are important in a variety of space processes, including processing on planetary surfaces, composition analysis of cosmic dust grains, and engineering of spacecraft components. Impacts of larger particles (such as asteroids) have played significant roles in mass extinctions on the Earth, and may have played a role in formation of satellites and transfer of biological materials between planets. Although hypervelocity microparticle impacts have been studied for nearly half a century, limitations on accelerators have hindered experiments in this area. We are developing a novel microparticle accelerator to overcome the three major limitations with previous accelerators: the limitation of a single electrostatic stage, the requirement of a conducting particle surface, and the cost (money and time) per particle. This accelerator allows multistage electrodynamic acceleration of particles independent of their mass, and allows a much wider range of particle composition than possible with existing instruments. Once the particles are accelerated, we use mass spectrometry and optical spectroscopy to examine the chemistry taking place in the impact of the fast particle with a surface.