We have an immediate opening for a graduate student ready to work full time on a newly awarded W. M. Keck Foundation grant. For this grant, we aim to develop a high-speed Near Infrared (0.9-17 micron) camera especially designed to help image planets around other stars. Our goal is to make working cameras and deliver them to the Subaru telescope on the Big Island of Hawaii; we will build those cameras in collaboration with Professor Hooman Mohseni’s group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The Physics and Astronomy graduate student will be primarily involved in the electronic, mechanical, and cryogenic interfaces to the Subaru Camera for Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) system. Some idea of the complexity of the SCExAO can be seen in this photo.
The project is both extremely exciting and challenging: the Keck Foundation funds no other types of projects. This is a “win or go home” effort. We make working cameras and deliver them to the Subaru telescope in the Big Island of Hawaii, or we stay home in Evanston. Please contact Prof. Mel Ulmer if you are interested in working on this project.