Dr. Thomas Speak
I am a new astrochemist with my prior experience being mainly in the fields of atmospheric and combustion chemistry. My experience is in bringing together ab-intio calculations, chemical modelling and experimental observations to improve current understanding of complex gas phase processes.
I grew up in the countryside near Manchester in England and ventured over the other side of the country to the University of Leeds for my undergraduate and post-graduate studies. At the University of Leeds I worked under Mark Blitz and Paul Seakins in atmospheric and combustion chemistry. This involved studying reactions in both atmospheric simulation chambers (HIRAC, EUPHORE) and pulsed laser photolysis laser induced fluorescence experiments. This work was supported by ab-initio calculations and master equation simulations. This work was primarily funded through my PhD funding through the NERC Spheres DTP program along with the funding for a short post-doctoral position through EUROCHAMP 2020. I then moved to the University of Sheffield under Peter Portius and Andrew Tyas where I worked on modelling the near field behaviour during the decomposition of energetic materials (EPSRC MACE). This involved combustion and detonation modelling and the direct detection of gas phase and solid phase detonation products. I now look forward to bringing the experience I have in high-temperature and high-pressure gas phase reactions and applying them to the low-temperature low-pressure conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM). Beyond science I enjoy hiking, camping, water sports and visiting historic places.
Dr. Haley Scolati
I am an astrochemist with research interests in radio astronomy and applied machine learning. I grew up in a small town in Ohio, US where I moved cross country to earn my B.S. in environmental chemistry at UC Davis and began my research experience in laboratory astrochemistry and rotational spectroscopy under Dr. Kyle Crabtree. I moved back across the states to the University of Virginia for my graduate studies, initially working on using chirped pulse Fourier-transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy as an analytical method for small deuterated chiral molecules. I later became a collaborator in the GOTHAM (GBT Observations of TMC-1: Hunting Aromatic Molecules) large program on the Green Bank Telescope (PI: Dr. Brett McGuire) where I made the decision to pivot my graduate research to realign myself more closely with the astrochemical community. During the final years of my Ph.D., my research focused on applying machine learning in various astrochemical and radio astronomy problems, including column density predictions for future molecular survey targets and benchmarking dimensionality reduction methods for high-dimensional ALMA datacubes. I was advised by Dr. Eric Herbst (UVA) and well as Dr. Anthony Remijan (NRAO) while a Reber Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Because two cross country moves wasn’t enough, I packed my car and cats a third time (this time over a border) to UBC where I am now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow studying the use of foundation models in collaboration with Dr. Geoff Pleiss (UBC Statistics) to explore the chemical space of astrochemical reactions and their processes. In my free time, I enjoy everything outdoors, from hiking to softball and soccer as well as exploring the city for new restaurants and thrift spots.