Astro Directory

Summary of Expertise

Advanced Image Slicer optical & mechanical design

Cryo-opto-mechanical engineering (NIR instrumentation design, fabrication, integration and verification)

Hands-on cryostat/instrumentation experience

Commissioning of large instruments on large OIR telescopes

Additive manufacturing (fused-deposition manufacturing in particular)

Biography, Education and Training

I was born and raised in Colorado. I grew up in a tiny, tiny town called Paonia, which is about halfway between Aspen and Telluride.

I attended University of Colorado at Boulder for my undergraduate education, earning my B.A. in Astrophyics (and incidentally graduating as departmental valedictorian).

For my graduate work I studied under Professor Steve Eikenberry at the University of Florida, where I specialized in IR instrumentation (particularly image slicers). Science-wise I work on Galactic Center science by trying to tease out population studies in spite of the staggering amount of reddening present. I use (but without claiming to be an expert in) Bayesian analysis to generate the finest-grained extinction maps ever developed in the Galactic Center region.