Our Researchers - MIT Haystack Observatory

Director’s office

Philip J. Erickson

Director; Principal Research Scientist; Geospace Group Lead

Remote sensing and scientific study of the near-Earth space environment, focusing on the ionosphere, plasmasphere, and magnetosphere.

Anthea Jane Coster

Assistant Director; Principal Research Scientist

Physics of the ionosphere, magnetosphere, and thermosphere. Space weather. Global Navigation Satellite System positioning and measurement accuracy. Radio wave propagation.

Heidi M. Demers

Director, Administration and Finance

Oversees the day-to-day and strategic administration for the Observatory including Human Resources, Finance, Facilities Management, and Information Technology.

Michael Hecht

Associate Director

I am the principal investigator of the MOXIE experiment on NASA’s Perseverance Rover, and I’m also involved with the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.

Research staff

Ercha Aa

Research Scientist

Ionosphere-Thermosphere physics and space weather, focusing on ionospheric data assimilation, subauroral electrodynamics, equatorial plasma irregularities, and geospace storm effects.

Kazunori Akiyama

Research Scientist

I am an astrophysicist working on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. I primarily study black holes with and develop imaging algorithms for the EHT.

Christine M. Alcalde

Associate Engineer

I work with a multidisciplinary team of research scientists and engineers in the development and design of technology engaged in radio astronomy, geodesy, atmospheric science and space technology.

John Barrett

Radio Science Software Developer

I write software related to the production, processing, and analysis of VLBI and radio astronomy data. I am primarily involved in geodesy (VGOS), the EHT, and EDGES.

Rigel Cappallo

Research Scientist

Collecting and analyzing EDGES data, observation and system-design for the Haystack 37-meter telescope, computer modelling of physical systems, public outreach and education.

Geoffrey Crew

Research Scientist

Supporting the Event Horizon Telescope (observation & correlation), the ALMA Observatory (ALMA Phasing Project), and the AERO-VISTA CubeSat missions (science and software).

Christopher Eckert

Engineer

As a hardware engineer, I develop front-end radio receivers for geodetic and radar systems used in principal research and space situational awareness programs.

Pedro Elosegui

Research Scientist, Geodesy Group Lead

How does Earth work? Geodesy is the answer.

Vincent Fish

Research Scientist

Astronomer working on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

Larisa Goncharenko

Research Scientist

Physics of ionosphere and thermosphere, with emphasis on ionosphere-thermosphere-mesosphere-stratosphere coupling

Dan Hoak

Radio Science Software Developer

I write software that's used to process data from radio astronomy and geodesy experiments.

Jens Kauffmann

Research Scientist, Astronomy Group Lead

Focused on developing astronomy at Haystack. Personal interests include star formation in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and training the next generation of scientists.

Mary Knapp

Research Scientist

Radio detection of exoplanets, development of space-based radio telescopes, CubeSat mission design/instrumentation. Deputy PI/PM for AERO-VISTA, PS for ASTERIA.

Nancy Wolfe Kotary

Communications, Education, and Outreach Manager

I explain Haystack research and technology to all audiences across all channels, including our website, social media, publications, reports, visits and tours, and education and public outreach.

Frank David Lind

Research Engineer

My research focuses on radio science, advanced radar and radio arrays, space plasma physics, software radar, novel sensors and signal processing, and satellite instrumentation.

Colin J. Lonsdale

Principal Research Scientist

I am a principal research scientist at Haystack, focusing on research involving a range of topics, including active galaxies, solar emissions at low radio frequencies, and concepts for innovative radio science space missions.

Lynn D. Matthews

Principal Research Scientist

Astrophysicist; current research focuses on study of radio emission from evolved, mass-losing stars, and the deployment of new technologies for observational radio astronomy.

Dhiman R. Mondal

Research Scientist

I study the effects of atmospheric water vapor in geodetic combination and in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) combination using GPS and VLBI.

Timothy Morin

Senior Infrastructure Engineer (IT)

Arthur Niell

Research Scientist

My main research interest is in improving the accuracy and operability of our geodetic VLBI systems to better measure the rotation of the Earth and, combined with GPS and SLR, changes in its shape.

Lenny Paritsky

Space Technology Lead Engineer

Leading and growing Haystack's space program. Technology development for small spacecraft, systems engineering and technical project management, space mission architecture and design. Systems, Integration, and Test lead for AERO-VISTA. Co-I of the Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW).

Violet Pfeiffer

Radio Science Software Developer

Python, Rust, C, NixOS, Astronomy, Geodesy

Thushara G.S. Pillai

Research Scientist

I am an astrophysicist working on molecular cloud and star formation. I mainly use near-IR to radio wavelength facilities to study the multi-scale physics ISM processes including magnetic fields hat influence star formation. I participate in the developmental activities and science projects using Haystack radio telescopes.

Michael Poirier

Westford Antenna Site Manager

As the Westford Antenna Site Manager I try to facilitate a team approach to support all programs and projects.

Ganesh Rajagopalan

Research Engineer

Developing ultra-low-noise RF/microwave/millimeter-wave cryogenic front-end electronics and associated subsystems for radio astronomy and geodetic VLBI telescopes. Identifying and mitigating the harmful impact of radio frequency interference (RFI).

William Rideout

Technical Staff

Software support for geospace research at MIT Haystack. I oversee the Madrigal database, and processing of ISR and GNSS data available via Madrigal.

Alan E.E. Rogers

Research Scientist

My current focus is radio telescope design, particularly the EDGES antenna.

Chester A. Ruszczyk

Research Scientist

VLBI instrumentation development, signal chain builds, IVS VGOS observations, and instrumentation for polar research

Jason SooHoo

IT Manager

I am the IT Manager at the Observatory and I am also involved in several astronomy, geodesy, and space technology projects.

Melanie Straight

Senior Fiscal Officer

Financial analysis, forecasting, budgeting, and reporting; audit and institute policy compliance; sponsor and Principal Investigator liaison; proposal submissions

John Swoboda

Research Scientist

I'm helping to understand our near-earth space environment by developing and improving sensor technology.

Ryan Volz

Research Scientist

Radio science problems involving signal processing, statistical estimation, and novel instrumentation.

Allan T. Weatherwax

Research Scientist

My areas of expertise are astrophysical plasma physics, geospace, auroral physics, radio emissions, wave propagation, and space weather.

Shunrong Zhang

Research Scientist

I study geospace climatology, long-term changes, and storm-time disturbances. Immediate recent interests include studies of sub-auroral dynamics, SED/SAPS/TIDs, and more.

Postdoctoral researchers

Sevag Derghazarian

Postdoctoral Associate

Examining the relationship between space weather events such as TIDs, gravity waves (GWs), stratospheric and mesospheric winds, as well as global medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) distribution and conjugacy—their location and effect on the upper or topside ionosphere. In addition, investigating high-altitude topside irregularities using a combination of radar and satellite data.

Dongjin Kim

Postdoctoral Associate

Astronomer; I specialize in radio observations to study radio emission or absorption from active galactic nuclei or dying stars. My research is focused on spectroscopy using radio telescopes, particularly VLBI arrays.

Jing Liu

Postdoctoral Associate

I am deeply interested in ionospheric dynamics and lower atmosphere-ionosphere coupling. My focus lies in the ionospheric responses during Sudden Stratospheric Warming, the morphology of Equatorial Ionization Anomaly, the Traveling Ionospheric Disturbance, and more.

Dupinder Singh

Postdoctoral Associate

Aeronomy problems involving the variability of upper atmosphere and ionosphere on various time scales and their connection to the lower and middle atmosphere. Some related research interests include the atmospheric tides, planetary waves, ionospheric electrodynamics, time-series analysis, satellite data analysis, and empirical modeling.

Samuel Thé

Postdoctoral Associate

Developing statistical methods to identify and characterize interference in radio astronomical data with the aim to better mitigate them. Focus on low earth orbit satellites emissions and their future impact on radio astronomy. Other research interests include the processing of astronomical data (optical or radio) using machine learning methods.