Resume

Employment History Overview

*While in Los Alamos ...

Education

Professional Societies

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Narrative History of Work

During my first postdoctoral appointment at Leiden University, I did basic theoretical research on structure and evolution of clusters of galaxies, and extragalactic radio and X-ray sources. I started studying the various particle acceleration mechanisms at work in astrophysical circumstances, and the interaction between thermal and relativistic matter. I continued some of the two-dimensional numerical fluid dynamics calculations that I had begun as a graduate student in Cambridge. With George Miley, I had an introduction to observational radio astronomy in doing aperture synthesis observations of clusters of galaxies.

I moved to Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona for my second postdoctoral appointment, where I continued my studies on the structure and evolution of external galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and the evolution of cluster X-ray sources. I also learned optical observational techniques, including the use of spectrographs, two-dimensional video detectors on large optical telescopes, and image processing. I compiled and published a reference book of data on optical spectra of galaxies.

My first staff position was at the main office of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. There I further continued studies of the structure and evolution of external galaxies, and the physics of extragalactic radio sources. Furthering my education in radio astronomy, I performed both single dish and aperture synthesis radio measurements, and continued the optical spectroscopy program that I had begun at Kitt Peak. I also managed an active summer student program, and gave popular lectures on astronomy.

My longest continuous employment, 24 years and 5 months, has been at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I worked in four different (but somewhat overlapping) scientific groups during that period, and while most of my work was technical in nature, I did assume some management responsibilities at various times during those years. I began in the Intense Particle Beam Theory Group, where I followed up my interest in the physics of extragalactic radio sources with studies of similar physics that can occur in laboratory settings. I did basic theoretical research on generation, acceleration and propagation of intense charged particle beams. I also helped with algorithm development for large particle-in-cell plasma simulation codes, coding and implementation of physics packages for such codes. I assisted with the design of novel types of ion beam accelerators and continued my research on particle acceleration in astrophysical contexts.

My interests evolved towards naturally occurring beams of charged particles, particularly in geophysical contexts, so I moved to the Space Plasma Physics group. There I did basic research on physics of plasmas in astrophysics and space physics. I studied astrophysical particle acceleration by building and running codes for doing test-particle simulations, and I did particle-in-cell and magnetohydrodynamic simulation of astrophysical jets, plasma expansions and diamagnetic cavity formation. I did a small but interesting project on the physics of gravito-electrodynamic plasmas, and became involved in studying the thermophysics of planetary surfaces.

During these years, I became interested in remote sensing applications of techniques borrowed from astronomy, and in particular the smart handling of large quantities of data. I helped to develop the project in Deployable Adaptive Processing Systems, and became its leader, with responsibilities for reporting to the program sponsor at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington DC. In this project I helped in the development of neural-net algorithm, advanced clustering algorithms, and other types of classifiers. We paid particular attention to the deployment of these sorts of techniques in fast hardware that could be deployed on satellite systems in orbit about the earth and other planets.

The University of California, which has managed Los Alamos National Laboratory since its beginning in 1943, has a number of Research Units that exist on several campuses of the University as well as at Los Alamos and its sister laboratory in Livermore, California. I was instrumental in the formation of one of these Multi-Campus Research Units, the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, and became the first director of the Los Alamos branch of INPAC. We worked to establish and coordinate collaborative, interdisciplinary basic research efforts among campuses of the University of California and the UC-managed National Laboratories. We developed infrastructure for an advanced-concepts multi-instrumented and multi-wavelength astrophysical observatory at Fenton Hill, in the Jemez Mountains west of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

I assisted with the installation and development of the Milagro gamma-ray telescope at Fenton Hill and with the installation and development of the ROTSE gamma-ray-burst counterpart telescope, with the RAPTOR transient-detect/respond system, and with telescopes for education and outreach. I developed and lead education and outreach programs at Fenton Hill Observatory, including the Earthwatch Institute's Student Challenge Awards Program long running Los Alamos campaign "Transient Phenomena in Astrophysics", in which we brought dozens of high-school students to Los Alamos to give them a taste of world-class research.

As part of my role in INPAC, I helped to bring Los Alamos into the Sloan Digital Sky Survey collaboration, which uses a telescope at Apache Point in southern New Mexico to perform the deepest survey of high-redshift galaxies and quasars and provide an unparalelled study of the structure of our own galaxy. I also helped Los Alamos become one of the members of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Consortium, joining with research universities in New Mexico and the University of Cambridge to build a world-class optical and infrared interferometric telescope in central New Mexico.

I returned to doing large-scale computer calculations of basic physical processes towards the end of my Los Alamos tenure. With a new, state-of-the-art Eulerian hydrocode I began once again investigating violent processes in astrophysics, including extragalactic radio sources. Collisions between meteors and planetary bodies especially caught my attention, and I discovered a resulting need, and complete fascination, in learning the physics of geological materials in sufficient depth to do the job properly. In the last few years I have focussed on the impact at Chicxulub, Mexico that ended the Cretaceous period, on deep-water impacts that could cause (or have caused) tsunamis, on tsunamigenic processes of other kinds, including submarine volcanos, the spectacularly explosive water-magma events like Krakatau, and landslides and debris avalanches.

More to come in Oslo!