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 CRESST@UMBC
 Room 211
 Physics Dept
 UMBC
 1000 Hilltop Circle
 Baltimore
 MD 21250
 U.S.A.

CRESST@UMBC

UMBC Scientists

These pages are associated with UMBC's participation in the CRESST consortium. The University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) are our partners in the consortium.

List of all CRESST Research Scientists (all three institutions).

UMBC Scientists within CRESST

Currently there are 21 UMBC scientists working on CRESST-related projects (plus the UMBC Associate Director). A brief description of the work they perform is given below. For contact information, see the CRESST@UMBC Contact Directory.

Dr. Rick Arendt

Associate Research Scientist
Developing specialized software for several scientific instruments of use within GSFC's Observational Cosmology Laboratory, including IRAC on the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the SHARC-II camera at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) in Hawaii. In all cases Rick has developed self-calibrating software to facilitate data reduction and analysis. He has also developed Fast Fourier Transform code to predict the throughput of the microshutter arrays on the NIRSpec instrument to fly on the James Webb Space Telescope.
Main Research Area(s): modelling of the physical processes involved in the infra-red emission and evolution of galaxies and supernova remnants

Dr. David Band

Senior Research Scientist
Working in the GLAST Science Support Center (GSSC) at NASA/GSFC, and responsible for user support services for the GLAST mission. Designs and supervises the implementation of scientific tools that users will use to develop their Guest Investigation (G.I.) proposals, and to design their observations. Also assists NASA HQ by managing the GLAST G.I. program: drafting the text for the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) and the GSSC; running the peer review process; and providing the documentation for the software. I also support the GLAST Users' Committee and other Mission activities, as needed.
Main Research Area(s): Gamma-ray Bursts.

Dr. Wayne Baumgartner

Research Associate
working with the Swift BAT team on the hard X-ray survey and hard X-ray detector development.
Main Research Area(s): Highly obscured AGN, clusters of galaxies, detector development

Dr. John Cannizzo

Associate Research Scientist

Main Research Area(s): Computer Simulations of relativistic fluids, Gamma-Ray Bursts, LIGO Observations

Dr. Kai-Wing Chan

Assistent Research Scientist
Expert in X-ray optics, having played a major role developing the thin-shell XRTs for the original Astro-E and for Suzaku. He is currently working on various aspects of the mirrors for Constellation-X mission.
Main Research Area(s): Gamma-ray & positron transport in young SNe and Galactic nucleosynthesis.

Dr. Robin Corbet

Senior Research Scientist
Chief Duty Scientist RXTE Sciencce Operations Center and Operations Lead for the GLAST Science Support Center.
Main Research Area(s): X-ray binaries, X-ray pulsars

Dr. Jay Cummings

Senior Research Scientist
Research scientist, specializing in the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on board the Swift mission.
Main Research Area(s): Gamma-Ray Bursts

Dr. David Davies

Associate Research Professor
Section lead for the Data Archives & Software Support (DASS) section at the GLAST Science Support Center (GSSC) at NASA/GSFC. Also oversees GLAST science software that is being developed within the GSSC and directly working on several of the science tools, and is responsible for parts of the project documentation, MOU, the GSSC science databases, the internal operations databases and the GSSC test plans.
Main Research Area(s): Groups and Clusters of Galaxies

Dr. Georgia de Nolfo

Associate Research Scientist
Developing gas microwell detectors used to track gamma-rays and neutrons in 3 dimensions. Currently working on the testing and development of the 3-DTI prototype instrument, with the aim of future balloon and spoace flights.
Main Research Area(s): Intensity and modulation of light isotopes produced by spallation of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) using ACE/CRIS; observations of heavier GCRs using TIGER.

Dr. Fotis Gavriil

Research Associate
Development of software and analysis techniques for long-term spectroscopic observations of X-ray pulsars and related objects.
Main Research Area(s): Highly-magnetized Neutron Stars ("Magnetars")

Dr. Markos Georganopoulos

Assistant Professor
Theoretical interpretation of radio loud objects, and development of a theoretical 'toolbox' in support of the GLAST mission.
Main Research Area(s): Broad-band synchrotron and IC emission from relativistic flows.

Dr. Ian M. George

Associate Professor
UMBC P.I. & Associate Director of CRESST, Director of the Center for Space Sciences & Technology at UMBC, and the Director of the Joint Center for Astrophysics at UMBC,
Main Research Area(s): Active Galactic Nuclei

Dr. Kenji Hamaguchi

Assistant Research Scientist
Member of the Suzaku GOF.
Main Research Area(s): Young stellar objects, wind-wind interactions in massive binary systems, and astrobiology

Dr. Masaharu Hirayama

Assistant Research Scientist
Pulsar tools manager in the development team of the GLAST/Large Area Telescope (LAT) Standard Analysis Environment (SAE) within the GLAST Science Support Center (GSSC) at NASA/GSFC. Also, the lead of the FITS definition working group in the SAE development team, I organize development of data formats for distributions of GLAST/LAT data and ensures conform the FITS file standards recommended by the HEASARC FITS Working Group.
Main Research Area(s): X-ray and Gamma-ray Pulsars

Dr. John Lehan

Associate Research Scientist
The design and testing of anamorphic optical systems, thin film optics, sputtering and vacuum deposition techniques, ultra-lightweight optics for space use, including grazing incidence X-ray optics.
Main Research Area(s): Optical measurement technology and design

Dr. James van Meter

Research Associate
Research scientist specialising in numerical simultaions of the mergers of a binary black hole system in support of the Laser Interformetric Space Antenna (LISA) mission.
Main Research Area(s): Simulations of Gravitational Waves

Dr. Koji Mukai

Senior Research Scientist
Expert in the use, calibration and software associated with X-ray CCDs, and currently managing the Suzaku GOF.
Main Research Area(s): X-ray and multiwaveband studies of magnetic CVs, and other interacting binaries

Dr. Tim Norton

Associate Research Science
Development of novel readout systems and high quantum efficiency photoemissive layers for UV sensitive photon-counting detectors and of NIR sensitive detectors for missions including TPF and SNAP-JDEM/Destiny.

Dr. Katja Pottschmidt

Research Associate
Member of the INTEGRAL GOF at NASA/GSFC: user support, archive maintenance.
Main Research Area(s): X-ray binaries, especially black hole binaries and accreting pulsars (cyclotron line sources), modeling of high resolution X-ray timing processes and broad band spectra.

Dr. Takanori Sakamoto

Research Associate
Team member of the Swift BAT, constructing automatic pipeline scripts for the BAT GRB data and on-board calibration of the energy response matrices of the BAT.
Main Research Area(s): Gamma-ray Bursts

Dr. Seunghee Son

Research Associate
Construction and characterization of the prototype 3-DTI detector, along with the development of the front-end electronics.
Main Research Area(s): Gamma-ray and neutron imaging detectors.

Dr. Steve Sturner

Associate Research Scientist
Lead Scientist of the Integral GOF and Co-I on the SPI instrument.
Main Research Area(s): Multiwavelength modeling of the non-thermal emission of SNRs, and radiative processes in radio pulsars & XRBs, diffuse MeV emission and Cosmic-ray interactions with outer solar system bodies.
List of former UMBC CRESST Scientists.

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