About me
At present, I am working as Staff Engineer at University of California, San Diego (Physics).
I graduated with a PhD (May 2016, defended Oct 2015) in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, where I worked at the USC's Space Sciences Center(SSC) in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. At SSC, we were involved with full cycle design, manufacturing and calibration of both laboratory and space based instrumentation for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) to Soft X-Ray(SXR) range spectroscopy. My adviser was the late Prof. Darrell Judge (1934-2014). In addition, I was advised by Prof. Mike Gruntman and mentored (engineering) by Dr. Seth Wieman.
Currently, SSC has two space based active solar spectrophotometers, one each on board SOHO (CELIAS/SEM) and SDO (EVE/ESP) satellites. These spectrophotometers are taking measurements of absolute solar irradiance in EUV-SXR range where solar spectral output can be highly dynamic. Such measurements with high photo-metric accuracy, long term stability and high time cadence help us in our overall understanding of solar variability and its effects on upper earth atmospheres on both long and short time scales. In addition, we launch periodic sounding rocket calibration under-flights with up to four different payload instruments from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. My engineering experience includes multiple aspects(electro-mechanical) of designing experiments, machining, building software tools for data acquisition/analysis, data reduction, vacuum systems and calibration of sensor-detectors.
My research cross pollinates between Space Physics, EUV Spectroscopy, Instrumentation and Material Science. I like working at the confluence of science and engineering and look forward to opportunities in technical research that can be best described, "exploratory endeavors".
I can be contacted at vaibhav2.g at gmail dot com