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).
2015 NAE FOE Presentation
I presented a talk at this year’s National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium on Starlight Suppression (note that there are embedded videos in the talk that will only play in Adobe PDF viewers).
SPIE Optics + Photonics
We attended SPIE Optics and Photonics conference in San Diego, CA. Joyce Fang presented her paper “State Estimation in Optical System Alignment using Monochromatic Beam Imaging” in Optical Design and Systems Engineering session. Dmitry Savransky presented his paper on “Blind Source Separation Approaches for Exoplanet Signal Extraction.”
Presenting 51 Eri b
The GPIES team is proud to announce our first new exoplanet discovery: 51 Eri b. We’ve gotten some amazing press coverage, including a Cornell Chronicle article on highlighting the Cornell team’s contributions. The discovery appears in the current issue of Science.
Speakers and Participants Announced for NAE’s 2015 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
I will be speaking at this year’s Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. See full press release here.
Spirit of Lyot 2015
We present the latest analysis of the ongoing GPIES survey at the Spirit of Lyot conference in Montreal. See the poster here.
SPIE DSS 2015
We attended SPIE DSS 2015 Defense, Security and Sensing conference in Baltimore, MD. Joyce Fang presented her poster Automated Optical System Alignment and Low Order Wavefront Sensing in the poster session.
SGRS 2015 Poster Session
The Sibley Graduate Research Symposium (SGRS) and prospective graduate student visit weekend were held March 6th-7th. Daniel Garrett represented SIOSlab at the poster session with his poster titled: WFIRST-AFTA Exoplanet Imaging Mission Simulation.