My research interests:
For nerds:
My work studies both abstract theory and concrete examples of dynamical systems, with a strong emphasis on understanding chaotic (seemingly random or unordered) dynamical behavior. My background is in smooth ergodic theory, which provides a set of techniques and a conceptual framework (e.g., SRB measures) for understanding statistical properties of the time-asymptotic behavior of systems on smooth manifolds, the time-evolution of which is differentiable with respect to the initial condition. My work has typically focused on infinite-dimensional and/or randomly-driven dynamical systems.
For non-nerds or young nerds:
Many of the time-evolving systems in our world evolve according to seemingly simple "microscopic" laws, e.g., Newton's 3rd law in the case of purely mechanical systems. It comes as some surprise, then, that these systems are capable of exhibiting extremely complicated, seemingly random, dynamical behaviors. Consider, for example, the gas surrounding you in the room you're in. At a microscopic level, the molecules comprising this gas interact with each other in a relatively simple (and in particular, time-reversible) way, whereas at the macroscopic level the collective of gas molecules can exhibit extremely complicated, time-irreversible behavior (consider how smoke from incense distributes throughout a closed room-- have you ever seen it un-mix?).
My research focuses on the statistical properties of these systems, i.e., how to understand the (possibly quite complicated or "chaotic") time-evolution of dynamics through the lens of probability theory (this goes by a different name-- ergodic theory).