Timothy Pickering Email & Phone Number

Tucson, Az, Us

Tucson, Arizona Area

- Oversee general performance, characterization, maintenance, and operation of the facility instrumentation.- Update and maintain staff and user documentation.- Coordinate engineering activities in support of improvements to instrumentation.- Maintain and improve all aspects of wavefront sensing.- Analyze telescope performance data.- Conduct independent astronomical research.

Baltimore, Maryland Area

Was part of a team that is developing a multi-mission exposure time calculator system for the next generation of space telescope missions: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). My role was developing the "engine" for this that models the telescope, instrument, and detector systems and performs the calculations. I was responsible for designing and implementing a "data-driven" architecture for the engine that allows the system easily support new telescopes and instruments.

Cape Town Area, South Africa

Carryed out queue observations; Developed and maintained data pipeline software; Developed and maintained tools to monitor site and sky conditions; Liaised with astronomers and assisted with setting up observations and data analysis; Consulted with groups in Ethiopia and Kenya to assist with plans to set up new observatories.

Tucson, Arizona Area

Developed and maintained control and interface software for auto-guiders, Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors, and legacy long-slit spectrographs; Developed methods and tools to monitor and improve telescope open-loop pointing and focus performance; Developed tools to monitor thermal performance of the borosilicate primary mirror, modeled the effects of thermal variations within the mirror, and used the models to calculate required corrections to mirror figure; Involved with operations, maintenance, and testing of deformable secondary mirror system; Managed observatory IT services

Tucson, Arizona Area

Real-time imaging interface development for adaptive secondary mirror system; IT and network security management

Groningen, Netherlands

Pursued personal research program and assisted with other research programs. This work involved acquiring and analyzing data from a wide variety of observatories and instruments in a wide variety of formats. This included radio interferometry using the Westerbork Synthesis Array, space-based IR imaging using the European Infrared Space Observatory, ground-based optical and IR imaging using the William Herschel Telescope, and ground-based sub-millimeter imaging using SCUBA bolometer array at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope.

Phd, Astronomy

Bs, Astronomy