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American astrophysicist
Erika Tobiason Hamden is an American
astrophysicist and associate professor at the
University of Arizona and
Steward Observatory . Her research focuses on developing
ultraviolet (UV) detector technology,
ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV/VIS) instrumentation and
spectroscopy , and
galaxy evolution .
[1] She served as the project scientist and project manager of a UV
multi-object spectrograph , FIREBall-2, that is designed to observe the circumgalactic medium (CGM).
[2] She is a 2019
TED fellow .
[3]
Early life and education
Hamden was born in
Montclair, New Jersey . Hamden studied astrophysics at
Harvard College and graduated in 2006.
[4] Hamden worked at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, completing a senior thesis under Andrew Szentgyorgyi.
[4] After graduating, she completed a diploma at
Le Cordon Bleu in London, before working as a
chef in
New Jersey . She joined
Columbia University for her doctoral studies in 2007, earning a
PhD supervised by
David Schiminovich [
Wikidata ] in 2014.
[5] She worked on the diffuse galactic far UV background using archival
GALEX data, far UV bright
galactic clouds , UV detector development, and ultraviolet instrumentation.
[6]
[4] She held a
NASA Earth and Space Science fellowship from 2011 to 2014.
Career and research
Hamden joined
California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Christopher Martin. Here she developed an
ultraviolet telescope for a
high-altitude balloon , the "Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted Emission Balloon" (FIREBall-2).
[4]
[7] FIREBall-2 will observe circumgalactic media (CGM) emission in the
ultraviolet .
[8] She appeared on the podcast
365 Days of Astronomy .
[9] She was a
National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics
postdoctoral
fellow in 2014.
[10] The fellowship allowed her to develop instrumentation to study galaxies in the
Keck Cosmic Web Imager redshift range.
[11] In 2016 she was the first woman to be awarded a
NASA
Nancy Roman technology fellowship for her work in detectors.
[12] She was made a
Robert Andrews Millikan fellow in 2017.
Hamden joined the faculty at the
University of Arizona and
Steward Observatory in 2018.
[13] Here she is building a UV detector lab and continuing work on FIREBall-2 and as the project scientist for the Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper.
She is interested in
silicon detector technologies and
Lyman-alpha emission from the circumgalactic media.
[14] She has worked on
anti-reflective coatings for delta-doped
CCDs , helping to improve their efficiency in the ultraviolet.
[15]
[16]
[17] FIREBall-2 was designed to test this new technology.
[8] The
electron multiplying charge-coupled devices (EMCCDs) can suffer from clock-induced charge and spurious signals and require carefully designed shaped pixel clocks to minimize noise.
[18]
[19] She has worked as US lead on FIREBall-2 from 2014 to its launch on September 22, 2018. Hamden was present during integration of FIREBall-2 at
Fort Sumner in 2018, when a
falcon landed in the telescope.
[20]
Hamden is a member of the
Goddard Space Flight Center Cosmic Origins Science Working Group.
[21] She is one of 20 people selected as
TED fellow in 2019.
[22]
[23] Her
TED Talk was selected by
TED as a highlight of their April 2019 conference, and covered by
Wired magazine .
[24]
[25]
Awards and honors
Her awards and honors include
References
^ Arnaud, Monique; Milliard, Bruno; Murray, Stephen S.; Martin, D. Christopher; Schiminovich, David; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Evrard, Jean; Matuszewski, Matt; Rahman, Shahinur; Tuttle, Sarah; McLean, Ryan; Deharveng, Jean-Michel; Mirc, Frederi; Grange, Robert; Chave, Robert (2010).
"FIREBALL: The Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted Emission Balloon: Overview and first science flight results" (PDF) . In Arnaud, Monique; Murray, Stephen S.; Takahashi, Tadayuki (eds.).
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray . Vol. 7732. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). p. 773205.
doi :
10.1117/12.857850 .
ISBN
9780819482228 .
ISSN
0277-786X .
S2CID
8060117 .
^ Hamden, Erika (August 2019).
"Observing hydrogen from the stratosphere" . Nature Astronomy . 3 (8): 783.
Bibcode :
2019NatAs...3..783H .
doi :
10.1038/s41550-019-0866-0 .
ISSN
2397-3366 .
S2CID
201248061 .
^
"Prof. Erika Hamden" . Ehamdeb.org . Retrieved 7 February 2019 .
^
a
b
c
d
"Erika Hamden '06" . Alumni.harvard.edu . Harvard University. Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^ Hamden, Erika Tobiason (2014). FIREBall, CHAS, and the diffuse universe (PhD thesis). Columbia University.
doi :
10.7916/D8Z31WZF .
OCLC
1004780751 .
^ Hamden, Erika T.; Schiminovich, David; Seibert, Mark (2013). "The Diffuse Galactic Far-Ultraviolet Sky". The Astrophysical Journal . 779 (2): 180.
arXiv :
1311.0875 .
Bibcode :
2013ApJ...779..180H .
doi :
10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/180 .
ISSN
0004-637X .
S2CID
119285683 .
^
"The Faint Intergalactic-medium Redshifted Emission Balloon" (PDF) . Mpia.de . Archived from
the original (PDF) on 2019-01-27. Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
a
b
"FIREBall: future UV observations of the circumgalactic medium" . Carnegie Observatories . 2016-02-05. Archived from
the original on 2019-01-27. Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Citizen Science" . 365 Days of Astronomy . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Erika Hamden | NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows" . Aapf-fellows.org . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"NSF Award Search: Award#1402206 - Understanding galaxy growth and history through innovative instruments" . Nsf.gov . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
a
b
"Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships in Astrophysics for Early Career Researchers | Science Mission Directorate" . Science.nasa.gov . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Dr. Erika Hamden to Join Astronomy/Steward in Fall 2018" . University of Arizona . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Astronomy Colloquium Series Presents: Dr. Erika Hamden, Assistant Professor, The University of Arizona | U-M LSA Michigan Institute for Research in Astrophysics" . Lsa.umich.edu . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Advanced Detectors, Systems, & Nanoscience | Capabilities | Microdevices Laboratory | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology" . Microdevices.jpl.nasa.gov . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Next Generation UV Instrument Technologies" (PDF) . Kiss.caltech.edu . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^ Schiminovich, David; Nikzad, Shouleh; Dickie, Matt; Hoenk, Michael; Jones, Todd; Jacquot, Blake; Blacksberg, Jordana; Hamden, Erika (2010). Anti-Reflection Coatings for Silicon Ultraviolet Detectors . Optical Society of America. pp. MD6.
doi :
10.1364/OIC.2010.MD6 .
ISBN
978-1-55752-891-9 .
^ Hamden, Erika T.; Lingner, Nicole; Kyne, Gillian; Morrissey, Patrick; Martin, D. Christopher (2015). Siegmund, Oswald H. (ed.).
"Noise and dark performance for FIREBall-2 EMCCD delta-doped CCD detector" . UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIX . 9601 : 96010O.
Bibcode :
2015SPIE.9601E..0OH .
doi :
10.1117/12.2190679 .
S2CID
38993182 .
^ Nikzad, Shouleh; Hoenk, Michael; Jewell, April; Hennessy, John; Carver, Alexander; Jones, Todd; Goodsall, Timothy; Hamden, Erika; Suvarna, Puneet (2016).
"Single Photon Counting UV Solar-Blind Detectors Using Silicon and III-Nitride Materials" . Sensors . 16 (6): 927.
Bibcode :
2016Senso..16..927N .
doi :
10.3390/s16060927 .
ISSN
1424-8220 .
PMC
4934352 .
PMID
27338399 .
^ Letzter, Rafi; June 12, Staff Writer |; ET, 2018 06:05pm (12 June 2018).
"Confused Baby Falcon Rescued from Inside Balloon Telescope" . Live Science . Retrieved 2019-01-26 . {{
cite web }}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link )
^
"LUVOIR" . Asd.gsfc.nasa.gov . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"Meet the 2019 TED Fellows and Senior Fellows" . Blog.ted.com . 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^ Anzilotti, Eillie (2019-01-23).
"Meet this year's 20 inspiring, creative TED Fellows" . Fastcompany.com . Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^ Dreyfuss, Emily (2019-04-25).
"Scientists Need to Talk More About Failure" . Wired .
ISSN
1059-1028 . Retrieved 2019-04-27 .
^
"In Case You Missed It: Highlights from TED2019" . TED Blog . 2019-04-20. Retrieved 2019-04-27 .
^
"President Donald J. Trump Announces Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers" .
whitehouse.gov . 2019-07-02. Retrieved 2019-08-03 – via
National Archives .
^
"Meet the 2019 TED Fellows and Senior Fellows" . Blog.ted.com . 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2019-01-26 .
^
"NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows" . Retrieved 2019-05-03 .
^
"NESSF Astrophysics Selections 2011" (PDF) . Retrieved 2019-05-03 .