May 142013
 
May 14, 2013 - MRO Employee & Student Graduate

On Saturday, May 11, 2013 New Mexico Tech (NMT) held its 2013 Commencement ceremony at the NMT campus. MRO’s Optics Instrumentation Engineer, Alisa Shtromberg, received her Master’s in Physics with an emphasis in Instrumentation from NMT. A former Mechanical Engineering student, Stephen Jimenez, also received his Master’s in Materials Engineering. Alisa Shtromberg joined MRO in 2006 after graduation with a B.S. degree in Astrophysics from NMT. As the MROI Instrumentation Optics Engineer she is the lead on the Automated Alignment System project under the supervision of Dr. Colby Jurgenson. Ms. Shtromberg completed her M.S. on the development of the Automated Alignment system, under the supervision of Dr. Colby Jurgenson and Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakma. Shtromberg […]

May 062013
 
May 6, 2013 - MRO Graduate Research Students Receive Awards

On May 3rd, 2013, MRO’s graduate research students, Tyler McCracken and Alisa Shtromberg received the Marvin Wilkening Award which is presented by the New Mexico Tech Physics Department and is awarded on an annual basis. The Marvin Wilkening Award was established by the  New Mexico Tech alumnus, Larry Boucher (1968, B.S. in Physics; 1981, M.S. in Physics), in honor of Professor Emeritus Marvin Wilkening and is given to the graduating physics student who has demonstrated excellence in experimental physics. The award consists of a certificate  and a technician’s tool kit valued at $950. Tyler McCracken is a graduate student in the physics department at New […]

May 022013
 
May 2, 2013 – MRO's Research Assistant Heather Bloemhard Receives Grant

Official Press Release from NMSU’s Patricia Hynes New Mexico Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowships and Undergraduate Scholarships On April 16, 2013, New Mexico Space Grant Consortium awarded 26 Fellowships and Scholarships to students across New Mexico totaling $210,000. Heather Bloemhard, of Gloucester, VA, and PhD student at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, was awarded $ 10000 for research entitled “Ground-based Characterization of Exoplanets.” New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) is a member of the congressionally funded National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program which is administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NMSGC Fellowships and […]

Mar 012013
 
February 28, 2013 – MRO Staff Participate in Sarracino Middle School Math & Science Night

On the evening of Thursday, February 28, 2013, Interferometer Support Scientist / E&PO Coordinator Dr. Daniel Klinglesmith, Optics Instrumentation Engineer, Alisa Shtromberg, and Graduate Students Tyler McCracken and Heather Bloemhard participated in the Math & Science Night event at Sarracino Middle School. Ms. Shtromberg, Ms. Bloemhard and Mr. McCracken set up three activities which included a Michelson interferometer where kids could align two beam spots to make fringes, an infrared laser with infrared viewing targets, and a white light set up to look at how they can manipulate it with different types of optics. Dr. Klinglesmith had a demonstration set up to show how […]

Feb 222013
 
February 22, 2013 - MRO Staff Present for Senator Martin Heinrich

Senator Martin Heinrich visited the campus of New Mexico Tech today. He was accompanied by three staffers and his engineering background was in evidence as he asked insightful questions about the science of the interferometer. New Mexico Tech President Dr. Daniel Lopez, Vice Presidents Dr. Peter Gerity and Dr. Van Romero as well as MRO’s Program Director Dr. Ifan Payne, Project Scientist Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman, and Instrument Development Engineer Alisa Shtromberg had the pleasure of presenting a video  overview of Magdalena Ridge Observatory in general and the MRO Interferometer in particular. The Senator enjoyed lunch while exploring the new engineering smart […]