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Curriculum Vitæ

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Ph.D. in Physics
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2020 – present
B.A. cum laude in Physics, Mathematics, and Classical Studies
Minor in Computer Science
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2016 – 2020
At a glance: Four refereed publications, five total papers, four as lead or co-lead author.
2026 • Ubiquitous Corotation of Dark Matter Halos: Implications for Direct Detection
DF, C. Blanco, M. Lisanti
In prepration, expected summer 2026
2026 • Semi-analytic Inference of Dwarf Galaxy Densities and Implications for Dark Matter Searches
K. Raman, DF, M. Kaplinghat, M. Lisanti, B. Safdi
In preparation, expected spring 2026
2026 • Galactic Amnesia: The Information Washout of the Milky Way Merger History
L. Necib, DF, E. Davies, N. Starkman, A. Thoyas
arXiv:2605.04138, to submit to Astrophys. J.
2025 • How to Build an Empirical Speed Distribution for Dark Matter in the Solar Neighborhood
T. Shpigel, DF, M. Lisanti, L. Necib, M. Vogelsberger, L. Hernquist
arXiv:2510.21914, Accepted to Astrophys. J.
2025 • Dark Matter Velocity Distributions for Direct Detection: Astrophysical Uncertainties are Smaller Than They Appear
DF, C. Blanco, M. Lisanti, L. Necib, M. Vogelsberger, L. Hernquist
arXiv:2505.07924, Published Phys. Rev. Lett., 135, 211004 (2025)
2024 • Cosmological Simulations of Stellar Halos with Gaia Sausage–Enceladus Analogues: Two Sausages, One Bun?
DF, M. Lisanti, L. Necib, D. Horta, M. Vogelsberger, L. Hernquist
arXiv:2408.02723, Published Astrophys. J., 983, 119 (2025)
2023 • Probabilistic Inference of the Structure and Orbit of Milky Way Satellites with Semi-Analytic Modeling
DF, O. Slone, M. Lisanti, F. Jiang, M. Kaplinghat
arXiv:2311.05676, Published Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 536, 2891 (2025)
2020 • Next-to-Leading Order Simulation of Singlet Vector-like Quarks Decaying to a Bottom Quark and W Boson
Undergraduate thesis, earned highest departmental honors
Supervised by J. Haley and W. Johns
Contributed to ATLAS internal note ATL-COM-PHYS-2020-152
2019 • NSF Physics Research Experience for Undergraduates
at Oklahoma State University, supervised by J. Haley
Contributed to ATLAS internal note ATL-COM-PHYS-2019-1026
Scientific Thought and Practice Assistant, Coding Foundations of Research Internship Program
Summer 2026 • Will lead interns to discover the practices of scientific inquiry, to design and conduct experiments, and to develop skills of observation and critical thinking
Teaching Assistantship, Princeton University Department of Physics
2021 – present • Focusing specifically on introductory sequence labs, worked closely with the lab director to emphasize structured quantitative inquiry
  • PHY 105 Lab (Advanced Physics, Mechanics) Fall 2023, 2024, 2025
  • PHY 104 Lab (General Physics II, Electricity and Magnetism) Spring 2023
Additionally assissted in PHY 115 (Fall 2022), PHY 110 (Summer 2022), PHY 109 (Spring 2022), PHY 105 (Fall 2021)
Undergraduate Mentees
2024 – 2026 • Tal Shpigel, Advised during his OURSIP internship project, "Stellar Tracers of Dark Matter Kinematics in GSE-like Mergers from the IllustrisTNG Simulation" (see his colloquium here!), which culminated in his Princeton Junior Paper and a publication, arXiv:2510.21914
Resident Graduate Student, Butler College
2021 – 2022 • Coordinated monthly community-building activities for the residential college; mentored a group of sixteen first-year students
Ubiquitous Corotation of Dark Matter Halos: Implications for Direct Detection
Phenomenology Symposium – PHENO
University of Pittsburgh, May 2026
The Dark Matter Around the Milky Way
TIPOTS Graduate Student Colloquium
Princeton University, May 2026
Diversity in Ultra-faint Dwarf Densities and Implications for Indirect Detection
Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Meeting Around NYC – PACMAN
Center for Computational Astrophysics, January 2026
Halo-to-Halo Similarity in IllustrisTNG Dark Matter Velocity Distributions (poster)
Dark Matter Symposium – UCLA DM
University of California, Los Angeles, March 2025
Probabilistic Inference of the Structure and Orbit of Milky Way Satellites with Semi-Analytic Modeling
TeV Particle Astrophysics – TeVPA
University of Chicago, August 2024
Two Sausages, One Bun? GSEs in TNG (poster)
Small Galaxies, Cosmic Questions II
Durham University, July 2024
Probabilistic Inference of the Structure and Orbit of Milky Way Satellites with Semi-Analytic Modeling
Local Local Group Group – L2G2
Columbia University, December 2023
Semi-Analytic Inference of the Dark Matter Structure of Satellite Galaxies
Galactic Frontiers: Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Volume and Beyond
Flatiron Institute, June 2023
Kusaka Memorial Prize in Physics
2025, Princeton University Department of Physics
Joseph H. Taylor Graduate Student Fellowship
2024, Princeton University Department of Physics
President's Fellowship
2020 & 2021, Princeton University Graduate School
Joseph Henry Merit Prize
2020, Princeton University Department of Physics
Nancy and William McMinn Scholarship for Physics
2017 – 2020, Vanderbilt University Department of Physics
STEM and Business Scholarship
2016 – 2020, Scarlett Family Foundation
Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honors Society
Inducted 2019
Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honors Society
Inducted 2018