Astro Directory

- Title
- Postdoctoral Scholar/Employee
- Division Physical & Biological Sciences
- Department
- UC Observatories
- Affiliations Astronomy & Astrophysics Department
- Phone 831-459-5780 (Office)
- Website
- Office Location
- Center for Adaptive Optics, 211
- CfAO 211
- Mail Stop UCO / Lick Observatory
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.