OSC Colloquium: Erika Hamden, “New Frontiers in UV Space Astrophysics”

Nov. 3, 2022
Erika Hamden

Title: “New Frontiers in UV Space Astrophysics”

Abstract: 

The ultraviolet is experiencing a boom of interest, resulting in exciting mission developments in space astrophysics. This boom is driven less by recent scientific discoveries (the UV has always been scientifically rich) but rather is driven by technology advancements due to investments over the past 2 decades. In this talk, I will highlight how work on detector, mirror, and spacecraft technology has opened up exciting opportunities in the UV. I will describe ongoing work to observe the circum-galactic medium around galaxies with FIREBall-2, launching in 2023, and Aspera, a NASA Pioneers SmallSat scheduled for launch in 2025. I will also describe a UV space mission in development, Hyperion, which explores molecular hydrogen gas in Galactic star forming regions and planet forming disks via FUV fluorescence. 

Bio: 

Dr. Hamden’s research focuses on UV instrumentation, detector technology development, galaxy evolution, and star formation. She is the PI of Hyperion, a mission in development designed to observe molecular hydrogen in our galaxy to better understand how stars form. She is also the Deputy PI of Aspera, a NASA Pioneers Mission (PI: Dr. Carlos Vargas), which will observe nearby edge-on galaxies in the extreme UV. Aspera is scheduled to launch in 2025. Dr. Hamden received a bachelors in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard in 2006. She worked as a chef for a year before beginning grad school at Columbia University, finishing her PhD in 2014. She moved to Caltech for a postdoc and was an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow and the R.A. and G.B. Millikan Prize Postdoctoral Fellow in Experimental Physics. Dr. Hamden was awarded a Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship for her detector work in 2016. She received a PECASE award in 2019 and has received numerous other awards from NASA. She is also the founder and organizer of the PI Launchpad.

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05
Donna Strickland Colloquium
OSC Colloquium: Donna Strickland, "High Intensity Fiber lasers for Nonlinear Optics"
3:30 – 5 p.m., Dec. 5, 2024

Ti:sapphire lasers offer the largest bandwidths and therefore the shortest pulses.   The highest laser intensities have been achieved using Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) of large diameter solid state lasers.  CPA was needed to avoid damage from the nonlinear process of self-focusing.  The disadvantage of solid-state lasers is the limited average power.  On the other hand, diode pumped fiber laser systems offer significantly higher average power than solid state lasers. Self-focusing is eliminated in single mode fibers by guiding and so nonlinear optics can be beneficial rather than detrimental and used to broaden the gain bandwidth.  Single fiber laser amplifiers will not reach the highest intensities offered by solid state lasers, but in this talk, I will discuss developing fiber laser amplifiers for nonlinear optical interactions such as mid-infrared generation and laser acceleration of electrons that require high intensity and benefit from high average power.

Past Speakers

Hendra Nurdin
3:30 – 5 p.m., Nov. 21, 2024

OSC Colloquium: Hendra Nurdin, "Physical Learning Machines: Classical and Quantum Reservoir Computers and Beyond"

This colloquium will give a brief introduction to reservoir computing, an overview of its theoretical foundations, including the notion of a universal family of reservoir computers that is capable of approximating a certain family of nonlinear maps from input sequences to output sequences, as well as its inherent limitations. It will then motivate and touch on efforts by the speaker and his collaborators to exploit noisy near-term quantum computers as quantum reservoir computers. Finally, the colloquium will conclude with a discussion of research directions for further development of quantum reservoir computers as well as research trends in the broader recent efforts on engineered physical learning machines going beyond reservoir computers.
caleb baker colloquium
3:30 – 5 p.m., Nov. 7, 2024

OSC Colloquium: Caleb Baker, "Doing it for the 'Graph (Design, Function, and System Test Results of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument)"

As the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope approaches its planned launch date in 2027, the engineers of one of its two instruments have recent cause to celebrate. Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), a technology demonstration chasing direct images of Jupiter-like exoplanets, completed its system-level thermal vacuum test in May 2024, successfully demonstrating that it performs to its threshold requirements in a flight-like environment. Please join me as we walk through the design, function, and performance demonstration of one of the most complex optical instruments NASA has ever attempted to fly.