Matthew KENWORTHY
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Current Research
I am an Assistant Astronomer at Steward Observatory, part of the University of Arizona in Tucson. I am currently carrying out a search for extrasolar planets around nearby young stars in the thermal infrared (5 microns). The glare of the primary star masks out the faint extrasolar planet's light that we are trying to detect, so we are using a new type of coronagraph which helps suppress the glare of the primary star whilst letting the light from the planet through to the Clio camera (developed and built by Phil Hinz).
As a byproduct of this work, I am helping to develop new wavefront sensing techniques and test them in practical, realistic, high Strehl (>85%) situations. Our latest work is with Phase Sorting Interferometry (PSI), a technique developed with John Codona and Michael Lloyd-Hart here at Steward. This is promising to be a very exciting technique for full complex amplitude aberration sensing with no additional hardware required in the Clio camera.
Recent History
(2007-2003) I was an instrument scientist for the MMT Adaptive Optics (MMTAO) system. My earlier work involved understanding and improving the MMTAO's behaviour as we took it from a prototype system to an instrument that is suitable for more general use. The MMT AO system has been transferred successfully over 2006 to 2007 to the MMTO for general use.
Prehistory
My thesis work (1995-1998) based at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge covered astronomical instrumentation techniques using optical fibers and lenslet arrays at near infra-red wavelengths. I moved over to the USA and joined the CAAO group for three years, working on various projects before moving to the University of Cinicinnati and working with Margaret Hanson on infra-red spectroscopic data reduction techniques, landing back here in August 2003.
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Last updated: Tuesday May 19, 2009