Saxon Stockton
Astrophysics PhD Student
Texas Christian University
s.stockton@tcu.edu
github.com/purplinator
ORCID 0000-0003-1677-0213
ADS · Google Scholar · arXiv
I am an astrophysics researcher specialising in spectral line analysis and pulling physical information out of large data sets. My current work, with Dr. Kathleen Barger at TCU, uses integral field spectroscopy from the Local Volume Mapper to study the gas in and around 30 Doradus, the largest star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The spectra become maps: one for every emission line, corrected for the dust in the way, and then read together for what the gas is doing.
What I like most about the work is the part before the result: figuring out what a data set can and cannot tell you, and building something that does not quietly lie about its own uncertainty. I am at my happiest doing an in-depth investigation into a data structure that nobody has looked at closely yet.
Outside of that, I am an enthusiastic karaoke singer, a gamer, and a traveler.
Why this site exists
Two reasons.
The first is ordinary: research should be findable, and code nobody can run is not a contribution. The Research section is where I write up what I am working on and document the tools that come out of it.
The second is the one I care about more. I like taking high-level physics and breaking it down to a level where anyone can actually engage with it — not a watered-down version, the real thing explained properly. Most people who think they are bad at physics have only ever met explanations written for people who already understood. The Teaching section is my attempt at the other kind, and it is free, permanently, to anyone who wants it.
What I am working on
Research. Emission-line maps of 30 Doradus from LVM spectroscopy: dust correction from Balmer decrements, then line-ratio diagnostics of the gas. Read the summary →
Teaching. Lab Help, short answers for the physics labs I teach, and Python from Scratch, a programming series for people who have never written a line of code. Open the series →
Next. Mathematics lessons and worked physics problems, both currently outlined and not yet written.
Get in touch
Email is best: s.stockton@tcu.edu.
I am glad to hear from students stuck on a problem, anyone who found an error in something I wrote, and anyone interested in the research. Corrections especially — if a lesson here lost you somewhere, that is a bug and I want to know where it happened.