About 95% of stars in the Universe will eventually become white dwarfs, including the Sun. Understanding these stars and their planetary systems is crucial for understanding the physics of stellar evolution and opens a window into the future of our solar system.

I am broadly interested in the study of white dwarf pollution, binaries, accretion, and the evolution of their planetary systems:

1. Pham & Majeski et al. (2026): observational constraints on the properties of the magnitude and number of velocity kicks as the result of episodic mass loss episodes in white dwarf progenitors
2. Majeski & Pham et al. (2026): a Fokker-Planck theory for the orbital evolution with predictions on white dwarf binaries separation and eccentricity
3. Pham, Taylor & Cunningham (2026): a magnetic accretion model onto white dwarfs, with observation predictions such as undetected magnetic patches on white dwarfs might understimate accretion rates
4. Pham & Rein (2024): the dynamics of exo-Oort clouds driving persistent white dwarf pollution matching observed accretion rates

1. Poon & Pham et al. (2026) a hierarchical Bayesian inference method to analyze the spin-orbit alignment of visual binary stars
2. Poon et al. (2025): Bayesian inference on the current ensemble of observed exoplanet obliquity to understand formation mechanisms
3. Pham & Kaltenegger (2022): machine learning and statistical methods to optimize filters for future missions to detect exoplanetary surface water
4. Pham & Kaltenegger (2021): comparing machine learning methods and noise injection affects the characterization of Earth-like planet surface properties
5. Schlecker, Pham, et al. (2021): unsupervised machine learning to cluster planet types from planet formation simulations

I am interested in all areas of planetary dynamics:

1. Majeski & Pham et al. (2026): a Fokker-Planck theory for the orbital evolution of white dwarf planetary systems after episodic mass loss and velocity recoil kicks
2. Poon, Rein & Pham (2024): obliquity evolution of exomoons through secular spin-orbit coupling.
3. Pham & Rein (2024): dynamics of Oort cloud objects under the effects of the Galactic tide and a massive companion (stellar or planetary), modifying the shielded loss cone with energy perturbations from the companion

Many problems require numerical simulations. I am interested in improving numerical methods and ensuring their accuracy. I have worked in developing a new adaptive timestepping criterion (Pham, Rein, & Spiegel, 2024), a fast dynamical integration technique for small bodies around binary systems (Pham & Rein, 2024), and a new long-term comet evolution code that fully couples dynamical, stellar, thermal, and volatiles evolution.