people

Experimental Astrophysics requires an excellent team. In addition to scientific collaborators, a number of engineers, technicians and students have contributed to the success of my projects.

The technical team is essential for laboratory assistance, instrument and software devleopment, hardware integration and testing, and crew members for measurement campaigns.

At the University of Bern and member of the NCCR PlanetS, I have built instruments for microgravity research and remain active preparing a technical demonstration for the European Space Agency. My technical team has included: Daniele Piazza, Mathias Brändli, Thierry de Roche, Sébastien Hayoz, Jonas Kühn, Jean-David Bodénan, Stefano Spadacchia, Bernhard Jost, Romain Cerubini, Thomas Planchet, and Linus Stöckli. My mentors and collaborators include Nicolas Thomas, Antoine Pommerol, Martin Jutzi, Lucio Mayer, Maria Schönbächler, Yann Alibert, Jurgen Blum, Nozair Khawaha, and Ralf Shrama.

While at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Oganization (MPIDS), laboratory for pattern formation and nano-biocomplexity (LFPN), I worked very closely with the techncial staff to build a new experimental facility, incluing: Artur Kubitzek, Andreas Renner, Andreas Kopp, Gerhard Nolte, and Udo Schmienke. My mentors and collaborators included Haito Xu, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Jurgen Blum, Michiel Lambrechts and Anders Johansen.

While studying at Columbia University and conducting research at the American Museum of Natural History and Yale University, I was mentored by Michael Shara, Michelle Buxton, and Charles Bailyn.

At Wesleyan University, I was advised by William Herbst.

OPEN POSITIONS AND STUDENT PROJECTS

currently: Masters student project related to ESA-sponsored space-technology development. See ‘Particle F-light: High-speed imaging of micrometeorites and space debris’ under the projects page. The student project is about modeling the performance of a proposed instrument. The focus will be to characterize the performance of the imaging sensor and modeling the effect of noise and artifacts on the quality of the resulting images.

If you are interested in this activity, please get in touch to learn more.

Rationale for the project Particle F-light as a whole: Inter-planetary dust aggregates, called micrometeorites, pervade the interplanetary medium and travel at ultra-high speeds of several kilometers per second. Such particles are of interest for scientific investigations of the Solar system, but also pose dangers to space craft and human space explorers. As human presence in space becomes more prevelant, so does anthropogenically caused debris increase. Distinguishing between naturally occuring and human-caused projectiles is in the interest of sustainable space exploration, but requires innovations in detector technology. To assess the possibility of directly imaging these ultra-fast particles, I am currently developing methods to exceed the current speed limits of particle-imaging capabilities, and adapting these methods for use in space. This work is carried out in collaboration with the Instittue of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart, LaVision GMBH, the University of Bern, and the European Space Agency (ESA).