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This Legacy journal article was published in Volume 1, May 1992, and has not been
updated since publication. Please use the search facility above to find regularly-updated
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Scientists
Lorella Angelini received the degree of Laurea in Physics from the
University of Rome in 1985. From February to December of 1986, she worked as
observatory controller at the EXOSAT Observatory at ESOC/ESA in Darmstadt,
Germany. She was a Research Fellow and Duty Scientist from 1987 until 1991 at
ESTEC/ESA in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Her research interests center on
timing and spectral proprieties of galactic X-ray sources and, in particular,
X-ray pulsars. Dr. Angelini joined the HEASARC in January 1991 where she
contributes to the development and support of the analysis software used by the
database on-line service.
Paul Barrett holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Louisiana State University.
His postdoctoral studies were spent in South Africa at the University of Cape
Town and South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town, and Universities
Space Research Association at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Research
interests include cyclotron emission from Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables
(MCVs), photopolarimetry and gamma-ray observation of MCVs, and polarimetry of
CVs, Wolf-Rayet stars, and SN 1987A. Dr. Barrett joined the HEASARC in October
1990 where he works with the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory and is responsible
for NASA's Astrophysics Data System, for archiving of gamma-ray data, and for
developing both a graphical user interface to XSPEC and a (new) portable
BROWSE.
Steve Drake received his BS in Astrophysics at the University of
Edinburgh in 1973, and his Ph.D. in Astronomy at UCLA in 1980. He has
subsequently worked at JILA (U. Colorado) and the SMM Project at Goddard Space
Flight Center, before joining the HEASARC in January 1991. His research
interests are primarily in the area of galactic, particularly stellar,
astronomy, and he has studied stars all over the HR Diagram from O stars to M
(and S) stars, and dwarf stars to supergiant stars, and (even) the Sun. If
pressed, he may admit that RS CVn stars and magnetic Bp stars are his
favorites. He has also tried to apply a multi-wavelength approach in much of
his work, and has made or used observations of stars at radio, optical, UV, and
X-ray energies. At the HEASARC, Dr. Drake has been working on assembling a
library of plasma emission codes, as well as updating and adding to the
database Einstein SSS, MPC, and OGS spectra and light-curves.
Ian M. George received his BS from the University of Birmingham, UK, in
1984 and his Ph.D. from the University of Leicester, UK, in 1988. From 1988
until 1991 he held an SERC Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK. His research interests have centered on
the study of the high energy (UV to Gamma ray) spectral emissions from Active
Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Much of his work has been observational and involved
the reduction and interpretation of EXOSAT, Ginga, IUE, and ROSAT data from
Seyfert Galaxies and BL Lac objects. His recent work involves the observational
evidence for, and theoretical implications of, "Compton Reflection" in Seyferts
and inhomogeneous relativistic jet models in BL Lacs. Dr. George joined the
HEASARC in July of 1991 and his responsibilities center on the reformatting and
maintenance of the calibration database.
Jim Lochner earned his doctorate in Physics at the University of
Maryland in 1989. He then held a post-doctoral position with the Space
Astronomy and Astrophysics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory before
joining the HEASARC in October 1991. Dr. Lochner's research interests center
on X-ray timing properties of galactic X-ray sources, ranging from the
short-term variability of Cyg X-1 to the long-term trends in transients and
accretion disk systems. This interest in timing properties also extends to
gamma ray bursts. At the HEASARC, Dr. Lochner is bringing together data from
various all sky monitors. These include the past missions of Vela 5B and Ariel
V, and future missions such as MOXE.
William (Bill) Pence joined the HEASARC in December 1990 and has
concentrated on developing standard FITS file formats for data from current and
past high energy astronomy missions. He received his Ph.D. in astronomy in
1978 from the University of Texas at Austin. He held research positions at the
University of Sussex, England, from 1978 to 1981, and then at the
Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney, Australia, from 1981 to 1984. Most of
his scientific research has been devoted to the study of the internal
photometric and kinematic properties of nearby spiral galaxies. He joined the
Space Telescope Science Institute from 1984 to 1990 where he was the Project
Scientist for development of the the Calibration Database Software System and
later was head of the branch responsible for archiving and distributing the HST
data.
Nicholas (Nick) White has been Director of the HEASARC since its
inception in November 1990. He received his Ph.D. in 1977 through Mullard
Space Science Laboratory at University College, London, UK. Prior to becoming
Director of the HEASARC, Dr. White was EXOSAT Project Scientist and was
responsible for the creation of the EXOSAT data archive. His research
interests include stellar coronae and X-ray binaries, and particularly,
accretion onto compact objects.
Support Staff
Brendan Perry received a BS in Physics and a BS in Astronomy from
Pennsylvania State University in 1989. From January 1988 until July 1989 he was
a research associate with the X-ray astronomy group at Penn State. This
position required software development as well as design and prototyping of
housekeeping board hardware for a sounding rocket program. From January 1990
until March 1991 he was a research physicist for SFA, Inc. on contract at the
Naval Research Laboratory Gamma and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics Branch. At NRL, he
conducted reduction and analysis of Gamma Ray Spectrometer data for the Solar
Maximum Mission Experiment. This analysis included software development for a
search of SMM data for gamma ray transients. In March of 1991, he joined the
HEASARC where he performs data analysis software development, data conversion
to FITS format, and data reformatting for implementation into the HEASARC
database system.
Katherine Rhode received a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Sonoma
State University in northern California in June 1989. That summer she held a
NSF research assistantship at the Maria Mitchell Observatory, Nantucket,
Massachusetts. In addition to managing the Observatory's weekly public
observing nights and astronomy lectures, she studied period changes of
s-Cepheid stars and authored two papers for publication in the Journal of
the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Later that year she
began work as a programmer analyst for the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT)
project at GSFC, where she wrote mission planning and image analysis software
and digitized pre-flight calibration images in preparation for UIT's launch on
the Space Shuttle. Ms. Rhode joined the HEASARC in March 1991; her
responsibilities include maintaining and enhancing the BROWSE software, and
reformatting data for incorporation into the HEASARC On-line Service.
Karen Smale received her BS in Physics from the University of Colorado
in 1986. While still at the University, she worked as a solar observer at NOAA
where she developed a new solar proton event prediction model. After
graduation, she held the position of solar forecaster for the Solar Maximum
Mission satellite at GSFC. Shortly before the demise of SMM, Ms. Smale moved
to the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics and became a Mission Planner for
the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope (part of the ASTRO-1 shuttle mission). Ms.
Smale joined the HEASARC in February of 1991 where she is responsible for the
VMS version of XSPEC, HEASARC bookings, and the ROSAT Guest Observer Facility.
Ms. Smale is editor of Legacy and the ROSAT Newsletter and is currently
analyzing some X-ray binary data from the BBXRT mission.
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