We attended the 2016 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes+Instrumentation meeting in Edinburgh and presented multiple cool thing. Links to talks here and here.
ERES II Symposium at Cornell, June 13&14 2016
Congratulations to Joyce Fang on Passing Her A Exam
Joyce Fang successfully passed her A exam on Monday April 19th, marking her entrance into the dissertation phase of her degree program.
WFIRST GI-GO and WPS meeting
On February 29 – March 2, we attended the international meeting Community Astrophysics with WFIRST: Guest Observer and Archival Science in Pasadena, followed by the WFIRST Preparatory Science team meeting on March 3. Christian D. presented a poster and Dmitry S. gave a talk on science modeling for the WFIRST coronagraph.
WFIRST Enters Phase A
NASA has announced the formal start of the WFIRST mission. See the press release here. SIOSlab will be playing a major role in this process as members of the coronagraph Science Investigation Team. Congratulations to all involved in getting this fantastic project to this point – now let’s head for launch in 2024!
227th AAS Meeting
We attended the 227th AAS Meeting in Kissimmee, FL. Daniel Garrett presented his poster titled, “Science Yield Modeling with EXOSIMS.” Dmitry Savransky gave a talk titled, “WFIRST-AFTA Coronagraphic Instrument Science Yield Modeling Updates.”
NAE Bridge Article Published
I have had the great honor of having my review article presented at the last National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Meeting published in the Academy’s quarterly publication – The Bridge. The full text of the article can be accessed here. Many thanks to the NAE, the organizers of the FOE meeting, and especially to Sara Seager and Mitchell Walker for inviting me to speak at their session.
WFIRST Science Investigation Teams Selected
NASA has recently announced the selection of the Science Investigation Teams (SITs) for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) – the next major NASA mission with a planned launch in 2024. SIOSlab will be participating in the science investigation of the coronagraphic instrument as a member of the SIT lead by Bruce Macintosh of Stanford University. This is a hugely exciting opportunity to help shape the next generation of exoplanet imaging instrumentation, which will take us one step closer to the detection and characterization of planets of all types, including the eventual discovery of Earth-like planets.
JATIS Paper Published
Our new paper on WFIRST-AFTA mission simulation has been published in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems. The article is available with open access here.
University of Rochester Colloquium
I had the pleasure of presenting a talk at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. Many thanks to my hosts and audience. My slides can be found here (animations only work in Adobe PDF viewers).