Physics at Brown
I earned my Ph.D. from Brown University in physics. It took about 7 years total, and along the way I earned my Sc.M. as well.
Like most first year students, I started as a Teaching Assistant (TA). This was actually a lot more enjoyable than I had originally imagined, and wouldn't mind doing some teaching again in the future. However, only easy classes, as I am certainly not smart enough to TA "tough" classes! I was even honored with a teaching award from the department. Cool.
However, one can't be a TA forever. There has to be some time for research. So the remainder of my time, I worked for Prof. Greg Tucker, on the BLAST experiment. BLAST is the Balloon borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope. BLAST will be looking at the ealiest star formation in the universe. We (at Brown) were responsible for the cryostat that will house the bolometer detectors. My first job was to design, prototype, and build the "housekeeping" electronics for the cryostat. Since, we wired up thermometers and heaters to the electronics, and preped the cryostat for optics box integration.
I spent much of my third year working at UPenn, where we integrated many componants of BLAST before packing up the entire experiment for Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Why Ft. Sumner? It's the Fall home of the NSBF, where BLAST flew its (engineering) test flight. Check out my Ft Sumner photos, as well as Don's Photo Blog, and Gaelen's photos.
A majority of my fourth (academic) year was spent at Brown, working on fixing and improving various componants in preparation for our next flight I say majority because I still traveled to UPenn and UToronto from time to time. My fifth year brought more of the same, although I traveled almost exclusivly to Toronto (instead of Philly). In February 2005, we were in Palestine, Texas (full time home of the NSBF) for a month for our pre-LDB (Long Duration Balloon) checkout. And for April and May we were in Esrange, near Kiruna, Sweden for our LDB launch. BLAST floated (nearly) due west for 4.5 days and landed in western Victoria Island, North West Territories, Canada. I don't have any good photos available yet, but you can always check out Don and Gaelen's photo blogs of our time there.
My sixth and seventh years brought preparations for BLAST's second science flight, this time from Antarctica. Again we were in Palestine for the pre-LDB checkout. Then I was in McMurdo for 6 weeks getting the gondola ready. Just before launch, I flew back to Palestine to coordinate some of the gondola control (working one of the shifts controlling the gondola, as well as in case of network connectivity issues to the Ice). The remainder of my seventh year was spent (quickly) writing my thesis and defending.