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Student Research
I have been fortunate to have worked with over thirty undergraduate and graduate students over my career thus far. This has included both undergraduate and graduate students through my visiting position at the University of Pennsylvania, and undergraduate-only students (partial list below) via my permanent position as a Professor at West Chester University.
Josh Kotton ​(2022) worked on several projects over the summer. He provided much needed support (see photos and captions) for the final assembly and testing of the Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Receiver in North America before it shipped to Chile later in the year. Josh is pursuing a Physics degree at WCU and an Electrical Engineering degree from Penn State. Besides working on the Simons Observatory, Josh wrote a Python package to catalog the Greenbank Observatory's MUSTANG 90 GHz archival data.
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Right. Josh working on the Universal Readout Harness, which uses micro- wave SQUID multi-plexing to read out the LATR arrays.
Above. Josh works with Princeton grad student Erin Healy to install the first set of mid-frequency (90 GHz/150 Ghz) universal focal plane modules into an LATR optics tube
Alex Lowry and Matt Pennecale ​(2019) spent a summer working on the Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Receiver (LATR). They were present when the receiver was first delivered from the Dynavac facility, and thus had the opportunity to work on many aspects of the instrument, including: performing cooldown tests (LN2) on lens proxies, assembling all parts of the 80-kg, one-meter long cold optics assemblies, and outfitting the 11 cubic-meter receiver with multi-layer insulation and thermometry. The photo on the right shows Alex and Matt with Penn grad students Jack Orloski and Anna Kofman in front of the LATR 80 Kelvin plate. The LATR is the largest sub-Kelvin mm-wave receiver ever constructed.
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Connor Johnston ​(2016) spent a summer working at the University of Pennsylvania with Penn undergraduates testing an existing Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS). He also assisted in the design of a newer, more compact version of this instrument. Time stream and bandpass data taken with this new FTS is shown below. Connor also worked with Penn graduate students Grace Mumby and Niloufar Khavari assisting in the implementation of a new filter scheme and half wave plates for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. In addition to his Physics degree at WCU, Connor went on to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree at Columbia.
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Carlos Cartagena and Kurt van Mol ​(2012-2014)
Carlos and Kurt worked on calibrating, installing, and taking commissioning data for a spectrograph for the 14-inch telescope in the WCU observatory. "First light" was in spring 2013 and was of the well known A0 star Sirius. One of the spectra is shown below. Data were analyzed with CCDSoft, IDL, and IRAF. After his obtaining hi B.S. in Physics, Carlos went on to pursue a PhD at Bryn Mawr College,
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Ian Snyder, Nicolas LeGall, Brett Sheriff, Kurt van Mol, and Trevor Davis ​(2010-2012) performed the first of many variable star studies in the WCU observatory. A number of Delta Cepheids were observed as part of this first sample, including EH Librae, DY Hercules, GP Andromeda, and VZ Cancer. The light curve to the right is that of VZ Cancer, which was found to have a period of 0.24 days. Interestingly, this is longer than the period quoted in the literature. Ian went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Oregon. Kurt went into industry working at Brandywine Photonics.
Ben Plumridge and Caleb Keay (2010-2011) worked on several design studies of select components of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope ACTPol camera. Caleb helped design a cryostat positioning system to support and rotate the instrument in the laboratory. Ben worked on vacuum testing and performing finite element analyses and deflection tests of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene windows for the camera. Ben and Caleb presented the results of their work at the 2011 All Scienes Poster Session.
Brittany Johnstone (2010-2011) worked on a number of different projects including building a He-4 refrigerator, converting a test cryostat from liquid cryogen based to closed cycle, and traveling to Chile to work at the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. To the right is a picture of Brittany's work on improving the capacity of the closed-cycle He-4 refrigerator Her projects were done in collaboration with the Experimental Cosmology Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Brittany went on to a PhD program in Physics and Astronomy at the University of West Virginia.
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