Schiminovich Group Laboratory

David Schiminovich

Principal Investigator

I've been at Columbia since 2004 and have had the opportunity to work with an excellent group of post-docs, graduate students and undergraduates. During that time two graduate students have completed their Ph.D. theses and two others are in progress. I've also maintained several close collaborations, particularly with researchers at Caltech, LAM/France, and JHU.

Erika Hamden

Graduate Student

I'm a sixth-year graduate student working on a number of different projects. The first is the development and testing of a high QE CCD based UV detector. We hope to achieve QEs of greater than 90% at UV wavelengths (100-350nm) by using creative, multi-layer Anti-Reflection coatings. This work is done in collaboration with the MDL group at JPL. I am also working on identifying diffuse molecular hydrogen clouds by the FUV signatures, and making FUV maps of the sky, using GALEX data. Finally, I will begin work on FIREBall 2, with changes and improvements to the existing FIREBall telescope. We plan to launch in the Spring of 2014.

Jenna Lemonias

Graduate Student

I am studying a sample of IR-luminous, high star-forming galaxies that have been observed in the UV, the IR, and the optical. I am currently doing UV photometry of these galaxies using GALEX data. The resulting UV magnitudes, in combination with the IR and optical measurements, will yield colors and star formation rates for the sample. Neutral hydrogen measurements for a subset of these galaxies will be obtained in order to determine how the neutral hydrogen gas responds to a variety of physical conditions in the galaxies, providing insight into the physical mechanisms that regulate and quench star formation.

Lauren Corlies

Graduate Student

Steven Mohammed

Graduate Student

Sam Gordon

Laboratory/Mechanical Technician