Infrastructure

As an observational astronomer, I am heavily involved in understanding and improving the infrastructure that allows us to learn about the universe. I have experience in all stages going from building an instrument to serving survey catalogs ready for science.

In particular, I have led/helped with:

• one of the core members of the data analysis group helping to write software for analyses to complete system integration and commissioning.
• Helped lead the creation of the_monster a photometric reference catalog that will be used for commissioning and early operations of LSST
• Work in Chile as part of the observing team running tests to verify components of the telescope, particularly the M1M3 mirror cell and Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA)
• Development of software for faro and analysis_tools which are packages within the Rubin Science Pipelines (RSP) to conduct automated verification and validation of data processed using the RSP.

• Ad/hoc validation studies of precursor data processed with the RSP to scope out our validation needs during Rubin Observatory commissioning.

• Data validation / photometric calibration for the DECam Local Volume Exploration (DELVE) Survey with Dr. Alex Drlica-Wagner. DELVE is a ~25,000 sq deg photometric survey using DECam archival data and 130 nights of dedicated observations.

• Developing the instrument TCAL, a mobile spectrophotometric calibration instrument for imaging systems, at Texas A&M with Dr. Jennifer Marshall and Dr. Darren Depoy.