Technical & Management Accomplishments
My role as an Astronomer at major observatories has given me the opportunity to develop expertise in several technical areas, and to acquire skills in program, project, and personnel management.
Technical
Gemini/GMOS field of view
Calibrating ground- and space-based facility instruments
- Creating user-facing documentation of complex systems
- Supporting users in creating and executing complex observing programs
- Scientific oversight for creating data archives
- Creating scientific algorithms
- Developing Science software applications and web tools
- Developing software requirements and testing end-user applications
- Developing community technical standards for data and metadata
The Technical & Management pull-down menu provides links to highlights of my accomplishments these areas.
Management
Project Gantt Chart, feared by many.
Success in major astronomical projects, be they scientific or technical, requires solid leadership and, increasingly, skilled management. This is especially true today, as both scientific and technical collaborations in astronomy have grown in size, complexity, diversity in participating institutions, and budget. Over the last three decades the importance of professional software engineering to the astronomy discipline has grown many-fold, to the point that it is nearly on par with other fields such as optical and mechanical engineering, and detector technology. It is hard to imagine a large modern observatory without complex, software intensive components to manage enclosures, instruments, data-taking systems, science data management and processing systems, and science archives. Advances in computing technology, data processing and modelling techniques, and world-wide investment in data archives has also transformed the nature scientific research.
I have over the past two decades developed management skills, including course work in software engineering, and seminars on communication, project management, budget development, supervision, and delegation. Among my skills and experience:
- Program management, including budget development and tracking, strategic partnering, and conducting reviews for senior management
- Project management, including WBS development and tracking, process improvement
- Personnel mangement of a cross-disciplinary staff of 15 scientific, software, technical, and administrative professionals. Activities included recruiting, assessments, mentoring, communication among a geographically distributed team, and delegation
- Policy development, e.g., scientific data rights and conditions of use
- Service on external review panels for constructing software intensive systems