Interviews

Interview with Matthias Schoeck

Matthias Schoeck leads the TMT Site Testing Group. He has been working on site testing issues for TMT, and previously for CELT/GSMT, since 2001. His previousexperience is in adaptive optics and methods of atmospheric turbulence analysis. Matthias was recently interviewed by Warren Skidmore, one of the other TMT Site Testing Scientists.

Download Matthias Schoeck Interview
[16:55 min. 15.44 MB MP3]

Interview with Mark Sirota

Mark Sirota is the Telescope Controls Group Leader for the TMT project; he joined the project in March of 2005. Mark has almost 20 years of ground based astronomy experience; prior to TMT he served in engineering and senior management positions with the W. M. Keck observatory and the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer. Mark brings a unique perspective to the TMT team having both project and operations experience.

Mark was recently interviewed by Warren Skidmore, the TMT Site Testing Scientist.

Download Mark Sirota Interview
[12:43 min. 11.6 MB MP3]

Interview with Jeff Oram

Jeff Oram is the TMT Sr. Cost Estimator. Jeff joined the project in September 2004 following several years in the aerospace industry and serving as a mathematics instructor. He has extensive experience and knowledge in parametric cost estimating, financial and operations modeling, project pricing, and database development.

Download Jeff Oram Interview
[7:00 min. 6.4 MB MP3]

Interview with David Goodman

David Goodman is our TMT Business Manager. David joined the project in September 2004 after an industry career in which he managed the business of large projects and complex international organizations. He is a former CFO and has extensive knowledge and experience in contracts, estimating, scheduling, accounting, finance, property management and budgeting.He was recently interviewed by Jeff Oram, the TMT Senior Cost Estimator.

Download David Goodman Interview
[13:37 min. 12.5 MB MP3]

Interview with George Angeli

George Angeli is the Head of Systems Engineering for the TMT project. He has been involved in the design of Extremely Large Telescopes since 2001. Before formally joining the project he was working on the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT) at NOAO and chaired the Integrated Modeling Working Group for the collaborative efforts of CELT, GSMT, and VLOT.

George sat down recently for an interview with Doug Isbell to talk about the systems engineering challenges of the TMT project.

Download George Angeli Interview
[9:29 min. 8.6 MB MP3]

Interview with Chuch Steidel

Chuck Steidel is the DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at Caltech, and has been involved in thinking about science and instruments for 30m telescopes since 1998; he has served as one of the co-chairs of the Science Advisory Committee for TMT since the beginning of the project.

Chuck sat down for an interview with Doug Isbell recently to discuss the TMT's exciting potential breakthroughs in the understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

Download Chuck Steidel Interview
[11:09 min. 10.2 MB MP3]

Interview with Brent Ellerbroek

Brent Ellerbroek is the group leader for Adaptive Optics (AO) for the TMT project. Before joining the TMT project office, Brent was the AO Manager for the Gemini telescopes.

Brent sat down recently with Doug Isbell to talk about the role of adaptive optics in the design of the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Download Brent Ellerbroek Interview
[12:40 min. 11.59 MB MP3]

Interview with Larry Stepp

Larry Stepp is the Telescope Department Head for the TMT project, responsible for the overall design and functionality of the 30-meter telescope. Before joining the TMT project office, Larry was a senior engineering manager at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, where he worked on AURA’s design for the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope, as well as the optics for the Gemini telescopes, the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, and earlier large telescope concepts.

Larry spoke recently with Doug Isbell about the status and challenges of the TMT design.

Download Larry Stepp Interview
[14:35 min. 11.16 MB MP3]

Interview with Dr. Stephen Strom
Associate Director for GSMT development at NOAO's NIO

Steve recently sat down with us to answer a few questions about the Thirty Meter Telescope from the perspective of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, a key project partner in the TMT.

Download Steve Strom Interview
[12:32 min. 11MB MP3]

Interview with Steve Key

Steve Key graduated with honors from California State Polytechnic University of Pomona on June 11, 2005, with a B.S. degree in architecture. The subject of Steve’s thesis was the support facility for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). He is currently working toward his architectural license in the State of California, and intends to continue his education in graduate school.

At the request of TMT staff, Steve answered a few questions about his thesis and his unusual perspective on the project.

Interview with David Crampton

David Crampton is the instruments group leader for the Thirty Meter Telescope project, and the head of the instrumentation group at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory/Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (HIA) in Victoria, Canada. In his capacity for TMT, David is leading the planning and management of the instrumentation activity, in close partnership with Brent Ellerbroek, who is playing a similar role for adaptive optics.

David has been the Principal Investigator or had major involvement in the production of several multi-object spectrographs and adaptive optic systems for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the Gemini Observatory, and has been a member of the science teams for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRCAM and NIRSPEC instruments. His scientific research focuses on the high-redshift universe, principally through studies of extremely high-redshift galaxies, quasars and gravitational lenses. A few decades ago, he was a co-discoverer of the first black hole in a galaxy outside our own, a discovery that helped establish the reality of black holes.

David spoke recently with Doug Isbell of NOAO public affairs about the state of the TMT instrumentation program, and its greatest challenges.

Interview with Jerry Nelson

Astronomer Jerry Nelson of the University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory at UC Santa Cruz is the Project Scientist for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Jerry brings great experience as the principal designer and project scientist for the world’s largest optical telescopes, the twin W. M. Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to his job with TMT, including recent work on Keck’s state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems.

Jerry received his B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in elementary particle physics from UC Berkeley. He has earned numerous honors for his work on the Keck Telescopes. Jerry spoke recently with Warren Skidmore about the challenges and opportunities of the TMT project.

Download Jerry Nelson interview
[26 min. 24 MB MP3]

Interview with Corinne Boyer
Corinne Boyer is a Senior Adaptive Optics Software Engineer for the Thirty Meter Telescope project. She spoke recently with Warren Skidmore to discuss the integral role that adaptive optics (AO) technology will play in the scientific productivity of the TMT.