My research focuses on the formation and early evolution of stars, particularly the interaction between jets, circumstellar disks, and their surrounding environments. I use multi-wavelength data from JWST and ALMA to study a diverse population of protostars—from deeply embedded Class 0 systems to more evolved Class II sources like T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars. My goal is to understand how these systems evolve over time, how their structures differ across environments, and how the physics of accretion and outflow are linked to the material that surrounds them.
One of the protostars I’ve been especially interested in is TMC1A, a Class I object with a bipolar jet embedded within a large-scale envelope. Thanks to the incredible sensitivity of JWST, the jet was detected through the dense envelope for the first time (Harsono et al. 2023). We later found that the jet was bipolar and asymmetric, with one side more prominently visible (Assani et al. 2024). In a follow-up study, we modeled the jet's intrinsic emission based on these observations. By comparing the predicted and observed spectra, we inferred the wavelength-dependent opacity of the envelope (Assani et al. 2025) —a way to learn more about the composition and distribution of dust grains in the surrounding material that feeds the accretion disk where planets will grow and ultimately the forming star.
To follow up, I am leading a program as Principal Investigator of JWST GO 8872, “The Dark Side of the Force: Unraveling Protostellar Jet Asymmetry by Probing TMC1A’s Fainter Red-shifted Outflow with JWST.” In this project, we aim to map the southern, redshifted lobe of the outflow in greater detail, exploring why many protostellar jets appear asymmetric. This asymmetry may result from geometric or environmental factors, such as increased obscuration along one line of sight, or from intrinsic differences in the launching mechanisms themselves. The proposal was one of the few accepted in JWST’s highly competitive Cycle 3, where only about 11% of proposals were selected out of more than 75,000 requested hours. Access to such a powerful and sensitive instrument is rare, and this project represents a unique opportunity to push our understanding of outflow physics!
My thesis work has also included analyzing several other protostellar systems, both similar to and distinct from TMC1A. This broader sample helps to place individual systems in context and track how jet-disk-envelope interactions evolve across different stages of protostellar development.
In parallel, I continue my long-standing collaboration with Dr. Mike Sitko, Professor Emeritus at the University of Cincinnati. Together, we study Class II and Herbig Ae/Be stars using the SpeX spectrometer on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) to explore how accretion evolves in these systems. Our work has focused on infrared variability and disk evolution, focusing especially on accretion signatures traced by hydrogen lines—Paβ, Brγ, and Brα. These emission lines offer a window into how accretion changes over time as the protostar transitions toward becoming a full-fledged star—where hydrogen fusion begins—but still remains surrounded by a circumstellar disk. Unlike the more embedded Class 0/I sources, these systems represent a more evolved phase of star formation, where accretion is less intense but still critical to shaping stellar and disk properties.
Earlier in my graduate training, I also pursued theoretical work related to planet formation, where I used 3D radiation hydrodynamics simulations on supercomputers to model how rocky planets form in disk environments. That experience helped grow my interest in how stars and planets form together and gave me a strong foundation in computational astrophysics and large exa-scale high-performance computing.
Overall, my research combines observational and computational techniques to explore the processes that govern how stars—and eventually planets—take shape, evolve, and interact with the environments they form in. The era of JWST and ALMA is opening up remarkable new ways to answer these questions, and I’m excited to be part of it.
For more details, visit my Google Scholar profile.