Instruments Division News
10/18/2007
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Congratulations to Massimo Robberto, the co-PI of SPACE, the Spectroscopic Allsky Cosmic Explorer. SPACE was selected for further study in 2008 (along with
DUNE) as part of ESA’s Cosmic Visions proposal opportunity for studying dark
energy. Other participating staff members include Stefano Casertano, John
MacKenty, Marc Postman, Neill Reid, Massimo Stiavelli, Rick White, and Steve
Beckwith.
Recent press releases by INS staff:
o Nor Pirzkal used Spitzer observations of the Hubble UDF to identify the
smallest known galaxies at high redshift.
o Have a look at Alessandra Aloisi’s stunning image of the nearby starforming galaxy I Zw 18. She identifies a large population of old stars in
what was previously thought to be a young galaxy, and Cepheid variables
nail down the distance.
Welcome to our newest staff members:
o Michael Wolfe, Data Analyst Group
o Pey-Lian Lim, Data Analyst Group
o Alex Viana, Data Analyst Group
o Jay Anderson, Webb Instruments Team
o Chris Long, Instrument Engineer, Telescopes Group
Tracy Beck will join INS on the WIT team on October 29. Tracy is an expert on
Integral Field spectrographs. She has been the projects scientist for the Near-Infrared
Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) at Gemini on Mauna Kea. Tracy studies T Tauri
stars and their disks and jets.
To accommodate the new staff we are adding, minor construction is underway, and
office moves are in progress:
o Dixie Shipley and Debbie Brenner have just moved to N408. They’re still
not completely settled in, so please see Robin Auer in N311 with any
urgent administrative matters today.
o Michael Wolfe and Alex Viani will move up to N410B next week.
o Additional moves over the next month or two will consolidate all of the
DAs on the 3rd and 4th floors.
HST news:
o WFC3 Thermal Vacuum 2 is complete! It is believed that the decreasing
IR throughput problems can be traced to the CASTLE ground system, and
the IR thermal control circuits are now functioning much better. Analysis
is still in progress. T/V 3 will start in February.
o There were successful SM4 sims for WFC3 and COS installation last
week at GSFC.
o The HST teams successfully presented their Activity Descriptions and
SMOV plans at a review at GSFC last Friday.
o The STUC is meeting here in the board room today and tomorrow.
JWST news:
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o The conference on “JWST and Concurrent Facilities” in Tucson was a big
success.
o Some JWST ground-system development work has been delayed until just
before launch. This is leading to efforts to prioritize which instrument
modes will be fully supported at launch, and it is slowing down the ramp
up in staffing.
o The JWST SWG is meeting here next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Migration of teams to the central storage system continues. The ACS and NICMOS
teams have completed their moves. COS+STIS are moving soon.
We have received over 20 applications for Visiting Scientist positions and term hires.
The SRC is reviewing them to prepare a short list.
Kevin Lindsay has provided the following update from the INS Diversity, Culture
and Respect Working Group:
o We’ve had a change in venue and date for the next INS pizza lunch. Due
to conflicting needs for the boardroom and other facilities, I’ve moved the
data for this month to Friday, October 26th, in the Cafeteria Conference
Room. Cost will still be $5 per person.
o The WG has made five recommendations based on the initial set of roundtable discussions:
 Broaden the mentoring program to include Data Analysts.
 Have ISRs findable and searchable via ADS.
 Provide interim appraisal feedback at least 6 months before the end
of the year.
 Establish a committee to evaluate DA promotions.
 Rotate responsibility for planning social events among different
sub-groups in INS.