About Ethan

I’m a junior at Stanford studying Earth and Planetary Sciences, with minors in physics and math. I grew up in Midway, Utah, in the Wasatch Back.

I like problems where you have to get creative about observing something you can’t reach, like the inside of an ice shell on a moon of Jupiter. And I like teaching people to work those problems out themselves.

Research

In Stanford’s Radio Glaciology Lab, I measure how brine trapped in ice changes a radar signal. The point is to help NASA’s Europa Clipper read what’s inside Europa’s ice shell. The project was led by Natalie Wolfenbarger and is now led by Annie Cheng.

In 2025 I also did astrophysics research at KIPAC, using spectra from the SOAR telescope in Chile to study two millisecond pulsar binaries. I write my analysis code in Python. More on the research page.

Teaching

I tutor math, physics, chemistry, and the ACT, from middle school through university courses. I don’t lecture. I ask questions and work examples until the student finds the idea, and I fill in the gaps before they turn into bigger problems. Details are on the tutoring page.

In the summer of 2024 I rode 3,500 miles from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. with Stanford Spokes, a team of cyclist-educators who stop along the way to teach STEM workshops. Mine, at almost every stop, was a Star Trek–style escape room where students used Newton’s laws to fly the ship (Stanford Daily, Stanford Report, Stanford Digital Education).

I’ve also taught pulsar astrophysics through Stanford Splash, done physics outreach with the Stanford University Physics Society, and substitute taught in Wasatch County schools.

Cast of The Girl in the Yellow Dress, 2025

On stage

My friend Tal Hughes and I wrote The Girl in the Yellow Dress, a coming-of-age play about loss and family. We co-directed it at Timpanogos Valley Theatre in 2022, while we were still at Wasatch High. It came back in November 2025, directed by Tal, with me as stage manager and sound designer (KSL, Park Record). Next is Xenith, a science-fiction novel. I’m building the world now.

At Stanford I designed the lights for the 2023 Gaieties, played Neleus in the Stanford Light Opera Company’s Mary Poppins, and played Fyodor Kulygin in Three Sisters. Back home there have been more than 25 community and school shows, and eight years as a host and storyteller on the Heber Valley Historic Railroad.

I sing classical and musical theatre baritone. I placed first in the classical high school division of the National Association of Teachers of Singing in 2021, and every Labor Day my family sings at Midway Swiss Days. More on the stories page.

Outside

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra

In the air

I’m working toward my private pilot license in Salt Lake City, in a Cessna 172. Every flight starts with the weather and a checklist and ends with a line in my logbook.

Fly it over the globe

On a bike

I’ve been in love with long-distance biking since lockdown. By far, the biggest thing I’ve ever done in biking was Stanford Spokes ‘24, but I plan on more tours to come. I maintain that the best way to see the country is by bike.

Ride the route

In the mountains

Home is in the Wasatch Back, so the mountains are close. I backpack, climb, and swim. In the summer of 2026 I led mountain bike rides for families and guests at Stanford Sierra Camp on Fallen Leaf Lake, and worked the waterfront as a lifeguard.

Staff bio

Also

I’ve been in the Stanford Band and on the triathlon team. I’m an Eagle Scout with the Gold Eagle Palm; my project was renovating the costume room at a local theatre. My first year I lived in ITALIC, Stanford’s arts program, and one of my pieces is in The ITALIC Atlas. I’ve studied Spanish and German, and I’m studying Samoan now.

One night in high school, surrounded by calculus notes, force diagrams, and play scripts, I realized I’d been so focused on school that I’d lost track of what makes life meaningful. So I wrote a ranked list of my values on printer paper: family, friends, community. I call it my Code of Hammurabi. It still hangs on my door at Stanford. The story is in Stanford Open Minds.