Group

My group builds and operates millimetre-wave telescopes and analyses the data they produce. Students and postdocs do both.

What the work looks like

It is genuinely experimental. People in the group design and test cryogenic receivers, characterize superconducting detector arrays, develop calibration hardware, deploy to Chile or to the South Pole, and then write the analysis pipelines that turn raw timestreams into maps and maps into cosmological constraints. Most people do some of each. If you want to work only on theory, or only on data analysis with hardware treated as a black box, this is probably not the right group — not because that work is less valuable, but because the thing I can teach you here is how an instrument and its systematics determine what you are allowed to conclude.

Prospective graduate students

Admission runs through the UC San Diego Department of Physics, not through me directly, so the first step is a departmental application. If you are applying and interested in the group, say so in your statement and write to me separately. Useful preparation is the ordinary preparation for experimental physics: electromagnetism you actually understand, statistics beyond the recipe level, and enough programming to be dangerous. Prior hardware experience helps but is not required; willingness to acquire it is.

Postdocs

Postdoctoral positions are advertised through the AAS Job Register and the usual community lists when they open. Enquiries at other times are welcome, but I will be honest about whether funding exists.

Undergraduates

I take UC San Diego undergraduates into the lab most years, typically for a multi-quarter project rather than a few weeks. Write to me with a short note about what you have taken, what you have built or coded, and what you want to learn.

Contact details are on the contact page.