I am presently the Division Chief for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, a 3.0-meter telescope at Mauna Kea. A large part of my previous work included the construction of new instruments and their application to research in areas of star formation and the interstellar medium. I led the efforts to build several spectrographs for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility as well as the design and construction of the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) for the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea. A major objective of my instrumentation efforts is to take advantage of the advances in infrared array detector technology as well as the major telescope facilities on Mauna Kea.
A general aim of my research is to study the low-luminosity objects in star formation regions in an effort to understand the nature of objects that may become either stars or brown dwarfs. I also collaborate with laboratory astrochemists to analyze laboratory analogs of the carbonaceous materials in the interstellar medium.
As part of the development of the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph, I helped to organize a consortium to fabricate several sets of infrared filters. This consortium led to the production of the Mauna Kea Observatory Near-Infrared (MKO-NIR) filter set as well as other filters in 1998. Numerous production runs of these filters have been organized in an attempt to standardize filters for near-infrared astronomy. I have also organized a production run of narrow-band and special filters.
Last Update: July 2004