Management of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Management of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
The YCAA Director is Professor Meg Urry, of the Physics Department,
and the two deputy directors are the Astronomy Chair, Jeff Kenney, and
Physics Professor Charlie Baltay. The YCAA staff also includes a Sr. Administrative
Assistant, Laurelyn Celone.
A key part of the YCAA is a laboratory experimental effort, headed by
Senior Research Scientist Andrew Szymkowiak, that allows us to develop
and test hardware for space and ground-based observing. Undergraduates
and graduate students are regularly involved in these activities, which
include:
· Building a high-throughput
spectrometer for the WIYN telescope.
· Testing the susceptibility
to radiation of flight CCDs for the SNAP mission (a NASA-DOE joint mission
to understand Dark Energy).
· Development of cryogenic
X-ray detectors for NASA’s Astro-E2 and Constellation-X space missions.
· Participation in
the development of the One Degree Imager camera for the WIYN telescope.
· Developing novel
ideas for cryogenic detectors.
· Collaborating with
Applied Physics department on detector development and related experimental
work.
The YCAA has initiated a number of activities to stimulate interactions
and collaborations. These include:
· A weekly seminar
series organized by YCAA postdocs, with guest speakers usually from outside
Yale.
· Weekly “morning coffee”
in our new lounge, with directed discussion of latest results on the “astro-ph”
preprint server.
· The YCAA Prize Postdoctoral
Fellowship, established with support from the Provost’s office.
· Postdoctoral career
development, via regular lunches hosted by the YCAA director for all astronomy
and astrophysics postdocs.
· A distinguished visitor
program.
· Scientific workshops.
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