Jason Austermann

PhD Graduate '09 - now at CU-Boulder! // Free link to my Dissertation

Department: Astronomy
Voice Phone Number: (303) 492-5942
Fax Phone Number: (303) 492-5941

E-mail Address: jason.austermann "at" colorado.edu

Postal Address:
Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA)
593 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309

Reasearch interests:

• Instrumentation
  1. AzTEC - Together with Grant Wilson (and others, see website), I built the AzTEC mm-wave continuum receiver. It has been used at the JCMT Telescope, the ASTE Telescope, and soon the LMT telescope, it's final home.
  2. CMBPol - Development of new polarization sensitive bolometers for the study of the so-called "E" and "B" modes of the polarized component of the CMB. In collaboration with NIST, Princeton, University of Chicago, and CU-Boulder.
• Sub-Millimeter Galaxies (SMGs)
  1. Wide-field surveys using AzTEC to study the SMGs at 1.1mm.
  2. Statistical analysis of SMGs
  3. look for papers on ADS under my last name!
• Cosmology
  1. "B"-mode polarization of the CMB can probe the energy scale of inflationand physics of the Universe when it was less than a second old! See CMB Polarization primer website for a quick introduction.
• Extrasolar Planets
  1. My undergraduate work included early observations of the planetary transit of sun-like star HD209458. I was one of the first to observe the full transit and accurately obtain the transit duration time. It was all done using equipment on par with widely available amateur astronomy equipment. In fact, since my observations, it seems that observing this transit has become one of the more sought after accomplishments of amateur astronomers across the world (for instance, see the January 2003 edition of Astronomy. It's been several years since I've been involved in this field, but a good place to start for information would be exoplanets.org. This is a site started, I believe, by Geoffrey W. Marcy, who is one of the early experts of this field.
  
  

Other Interests:

NUCLEAR POWER - The ONLY solution to global warming while meeting our energy needs over the next few decades. It is better than carbon based power in EVERY way (cleanliness, safety, longer term availability, and even cost effective). Renewables are even better, but can't come anywhere close to solving our energy needs in the near future and most can't supply constant energy (wind, solar). Also, renewables aren't available in all areas of the world, so unless you're ready to invent a room-temperature superconductor, or some other efficient long-range energy transport that doesn't yet exist, renewables are no where near a 100% solution. We need a COMBINATION of renewables and nuclear power for the near and intermediate future. It's our only hope going forward TODAY .

If you're against nuclear power, I willing to bet you have a lot of misconceptions about nuclear power. Have an open mind and learn the truth. A great place to start is a book by Gwyneth Cravens, who visits every misconception about nuclear power usually heard. Get more info at: Power To Save The World

Brief look at that book:
"She refutes the major arguments against nuclear power one by one, making clear, for example:

• that a stroll through Grand Central Terminal exposes a person to more radiation than a walk of equal length through a uranium mine;
• that average background radiation around Chernobyl and in Hiroshima is lower than in Denver;
• that there are no cancer clusters near nuclear facilities;
• even if someone got hold of american nuclear power fuel or nuclear waste (unlikely), they could NOT make an atomic bomb directly from it. The materials used for nuclear power and those for nuclear bombs are VERY different;
• that nuclear waste can be, and already is, safely stored;
• that wind and solar power, while important, can meet only a fraction of the demand for electricity;
• that a coal-fired plant releases more radiation than a nuclear plant and also emits deadly toxic waste that kills thousands of Americans a month;
• that in its fifty-year history American nuclear power has not caused a single death.
• she demonstrates how, time and again, political fearmongering and misperceptions about risk have trumped science in the dialogue about the feasibility of nuclear energy."