




BIO

Hello! I am a Ph.D. student in astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University. I graduated from University of California, Berkeley with B.A. (Hons) in Physics and B.A. (Hons) in Astrophysics, in addition to a minor in Music. I am an active science student, but also I spend my time with cameras and instruments.
My main scientific interest is in cosmology, especially in using observational data to probe the local universe.
I am part of the SH0ES team and contributed to the most recent publication of the measurement of the local Hubble constant.
Previously, I have worked on testing the theories for dark energy by connecting analytical and observational (experimental) results through computer simulations, as well as experimental atomic physics. These works are associated with UCB SNe Search Team (Filippenko Group) in UCB Astronomy department and Electron EDM Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I also carried several independent projects including collaborations with the Optical Cavity Team (Mueller Group) and another collaboration with my mentor Miguel Zumalacarregui (and his colleagues). Several outreach & education activities has been also part of my life, including curriculum development for Undergraduate Laboratory at Berkeley (ULAB) and talks for Super Science High school (SSH) summer camp students visiting from Japan.
Awards & Honors
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Commencement Speaker, UC Berkeley Department of Astronomy (May 2021)
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Honorable Mention, Chambliss Student Achievements Award (June 2020)
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Berkeley SURF 2020 Fellow
- Google Lick Predoctoral Fellow (2019-)
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Berkeley Physics Undergraduate Research Scholar (Spring 2020, Fall 2020)
Talks & Presentations
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AAS 239th Meeting 120.02 (meeting canceled)
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AAS 238th Meeting 211.03 (Oral session)
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AAS 238th Meeting 314.03 (iPoster session, recipient of Chambliss Award; co-authored)
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Seminar Talk, University of Cambridge Cavendish Astronomy (invited; December 2020)
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AAS 236th Meeting 132.04 (iPoster session, Pulsating Variable Stars)
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AAS 236th Meeting 339.02 (iPoster session, Education and Public Outreach II, co-authored)
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APS April Meeting 2020 T15.00008 (General oral session, Tests of Modified Gravity)
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UC Berkeley Department of Astronomy, Lunch Talk (April 2020 & November 2020)
Outreach & Education
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Teaching Assistant for undergraduate physics courses at JHU (2021-)
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Mentor & Instructor for undergraduate courses at UCB (e.g. Physics 153, Astron 198)
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Local Coordinator, SSH Science Camp (for Japanese high school students)
Publications
Please see Science page
* The pdf version of full CV is available upon request.
Music
Activities
(current)
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Participation in Peabody ensembles and concerts
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Participation in UCB Music Department Concerts
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Participation in VdGSA events
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Piano Teaching / Tutoring
Music
Awards & Prizes
(in Japan | past)
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Gold Prize (1st) at Tokyo Round and 27th at National Final: The 12th International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA
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3rd at National Final, Beten Piano Competition
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many more for piano performance
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First Chair cellist, National Youth Symphony Orchestra for the 20th High School Orchestra Festival
Photography
Activities
(current)
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Graduation Photography
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Backpacking for street photography
Photography Prize
(in Japan | past)
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Fine Work Prize at Tokyo High School Exhibition (2014)
Hobbies
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Cycling
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Bouldering
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3D Printing
More information about my activities outside of science is available on the desktop site.




Contact Me
For academic purpose, please use
sterling.astro (at] berkeley.edu.
For other questions or comments, please use the form to directly contact me.