Bart Dunlap is a UT Austin postdoctoral fellow working at Sandia National Labs. His work has centered on using white dwarf stars to elucidate broader areas of astrophysics. He has used observations of white dwarf stars to study failed supernovae, phase transitions at extreme temperatures and densities, and remnant exoplanetary systems. He has also been involved in a survey using spectroscopic observations to determine the temperatures and masses of white dwarf stars to inform asteroseismic investigations of their internal structure. He is now using the Z-machine at Sandia National Labs to observe the same plasma conditions seen in the stellar spectra with the goal of ensuring that models of the astronomical observations yield accurate representations of the stars themselves.