Non-astronomy interests

Mathematics of Art

For my first research project as an undergraduate, I worked with Annalisa Crannell on the connections between mathematics and art. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I started working through a textbook on projective geometry, a type of math involving no numbers, only the ways lines and points can intersct. After a few weeks, I noticed a new connection between a projective geometry theorem and a class I had taken on prospective art (also with Prof. Crannell). I explored that connection for the rest of the semester, and I coauthored the resulting paper: Drawing on Desargues

Hockey

I'm a big fan of the Washington Capitals. Though this is the non-astro page, one of my favorite blogs (Russian Machine Never Breaks) has had a couple really neat astronomy features:

How Russian Machine Helped Discover Ice on Mercury - Igor Kleyner, the primary Russian translator on RMNB, is an astronomer at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland who helped build the Range Measurement Unit on Messenger.
 
Explosions in Chelyabinsk; Meteor Suspected - RMNB was actually the first US news venue to cover the Chelyabinsk meteor strike in February 2013, since one of their writers lives in Moscow and a Capitals prospect played for Traktor Chelyabinsk at the time.

Contact

Email: sdouglas [At] astro [DoT] columbia [DoT] edu

Twitter: @stephtdouglas

Tumblr: @spotsloopsandlines

Github: stephtdouglas

FigShare: stephtdouglas