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Adaptive Optics
Newsletter
Volume 2
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People and Profiles
While some areas of research were negatively impacted, we believe that in the longer term, the Center will be better positioned to maximize its impact on the field of Adaptive Optics. Our two external committees - the Program Advisory Committee and the External Advisory Board, have endorsed the new theme approach, as did the NSF Site Visit Committee. We are now working hard to implement our collective vision for the Center. In addition to the changes in our research agenda, we have aligned our Educational activities closely to the Center's research. The Center's "Stars, Sight and Science" summer program for talented High School students offered through the University of California Santa Cruz's COSMOS program is one such example. The enthusiastic participation of post docs and grad students as instructors played a major role in its success. While all Center researchers are expected to participate in Educational activities, our post docs and graduate students are in the unusual position of partaking as BOTH contributors and beneficiaries. The Center sponsored a Professional Development workshop in Kona Hawaii, that was directed at helping graduate students and post docs improve their teaching skills and also their background knowledge in Adaptive Optics - the latter by visiting the Observatories on Mauna Kea. The success of the "Stars, Sights and Science"program was to a significant measure the result of the application by the instructors of the lessons learned at Kona. Our Year 3 has started with a gathering of all our researchers and educational experts for a Fall Science Retreat in Monterey. The meeting was held in an informal setting and attendees were encouraged to actively participate in discussions. In summation, last year was one of transition from a goal to a theme mode for managing our research. We have made a good start to year 3 and look forward to a fruitful and rewarding year for the Center. |
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Financial
Analyst - David Ginn - Dave joined the Center in June 2001. He has a MBA and
a BA in Political Science, both from from UC Irvine and is also a Russian linguist.
Education Coordinator
-Geri Philley. Geri joined the Center in October 2001. She has a bachelor's
degree in mathematics, a master's degree in instructional technology, plus
a broad range of experiences that are aligned with the specific educational objectives
of the CfAO. Geri comes to the Center from the California State University, Monterey
Bay (CSUMB) where in addition to teaching, she researched community issues and
in collaboration with community members developed appropriate solutions. She has
been associated with the Technology Tutors, an undergraduate course designed to
fulfill community service requirements at CSUMB, and through this has worked with
K-12 teachers and librarians in the low income neighborhoods of Salinas, Castroville,
and Watsonville.
Post Doctoral Researcher - Eric Steinbring
Eric completed his PhD studies at the University of Victoria in Canada. He joined
the Center in the Fall of 2000. His research is studying extremely faint, distant
galaxies, and the AO at Keck has been used to obtain high-resolution near-infrared
images of these objects. He is currently working on methods of characterizing
and enhancing AO image quality, especially for laser guide stars. As part of the
Center's outreach activities, he is building AO teaching demonstrators for vision-science
and astronomy.
The
Center for Adaptive has just completed its second year as a National Science Foundation
Science and Technology Center. This was a year in which we reviewed and revised
our research, implementing a change to theme oriented research programs. There
is now an increased emphasis on technology relative to science, resulting in a
subtle but significant redistribution of effort. Our four theme areas are: