Curriculum Vitae

Education

University Degree Advisor Project Dates
Rutgers University PhD Physics & Astronomy Prof. Saurabh W. Jha Thesis: “Supernovae Beyond the Rainbow: Spectroscopy of Exploding Stars with HST and JWST” 2019-2024
California Institute of Technology BS Physics Prof. Mansi M. Kasliwal Thesis: “iPTF16asu: A Luminous, Rapidly Evolving, and High-velocity Supernova” 2013-2017

Publications

First-Author Publications
Kwok, L. A. et al. 2024, "Ground-based and JWST Observations of SN 2022pul: II. Evidence from Nebular Spectroscopy for a Violent Merger in a Peculiar Type Ia Supernova”, ApJ, 966, 135
Kwok, L. A. et al. 2023, "A JWST Near- and Mid-infrared Nebular Spectrum of the Type Ia Supernova 2021aefx”, ApJL, 944, L3
Kwok, L. A. et al. 2022, "UV Spectroscopy and TARDIS Models of Broad-lined Type-Ic Supernova 2014ad”, ApJ, 937, 40
Whitesides, L. et al. 2017, “iPTF 16asu: A Luminous, Rapidly Evolving, and High-velocity Supernova”, ApJ, 851, 107

Co-Author Publications with Major Contribution
Siebert, M.R., Kwok, L.A., et al. 2024, “Ground-based and JWST Observations of SN 2022pul: I. Unusual Signatures of Carbon, Oxygen, and Circumstellar Interaction in a Peculiar Type Ia Supernova,” ApJ, 960, 88
Larison, C., Jha, S.W., Kwok, L.A., Camacho-Neves, Y., 2023 “Environmental Dependence of Type Ia Supernovae in Rich, Low-redshift Galaxy Cluster,” ApJ, 961, 185

Proposals & Grants as PI
JWST Cycle 3+4 Program | 40 hours | GO 5232 | $138k + will request ~$140k “Getting Late Early: Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of White Dwarf Supernovae”
JWST Cycle 2 Program | 8 hours | DD 6591 | $50k “Cracking the Cosmic Calcium Conundrum: discovering the origin of Ca-rich transient SN 2024uj with late-time infrared spectroscopy”
JWST Cycle 3 Program | 13.4 hours | GO 6811 | $50k “So Close, Yet So Faint: NIR+MIR Spectroscopy of the Nearest SN Iax 2024vjm”
CIERA Postdoctoral Fellowship | 3 years | $276k “Characterizing the Infrared Behavior and Evolution of White-Dwarf Supernovae”
Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Fellow | 3 years | $150k “Modeling the Near-Infrared Spectral Diversity of Thermonuclear Supernovae”