About Me

I am a fifth year PhD candidate and NASA FINESST recipient in the department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, working with Professor Fred Ciesla. I use computer models to study the chemical and dynamical evolution of protoplanetary disks, and how these processes affect the composition of the planets that form there. This includes planets and meteorites in our own Solar System, as well as disks around other stars and the exoplanets that form there. See more about my research here, or see here for recent publications.

I received my B.A. from Northwestern University in 2019 where I majored in both Physics and Astronomy as well as Earth and Planetary Sciences. My undergraduate work in the Astronomy department was focused in instrumentation and observation of star formation regions. For my honors thesis, I modeled the expected signal through the half-wave plate for the TolTEC polarimeter at the LMT.

Click here for my full CV [ Updated: July 2024 ]

Outside of work, I fill my time with lots of hobbies! Whenever the weather is nice enough (which is not often in Chicago), I enjoy running, hiking, and biking outside. Like many geoscience and astronomy grad students, I also enjoy bouldering and exploring the chicago food scene. When the weather is not so nice, I can usually be found inside walking my dog, Gnome, and cat, Ness.

Want to hear more about my hobbies or research? Contact me at ericvc[at]uchicago[dot]edu