Andrew John Monson

amonson@obs.carnegiescience.edu
Carnegie Observatories
813 Santa Barbara St.
Pasadena, CA 91101

Education:

Ph.D., University of Wyoming, 5/9/2009

Thesis: Development of a Near-Infrared Camera for Conducting a Survey of Northern Galactic Cepheid Variable Stars.

M.S., Physics, University of Wyoming, 5/6/2006

B.S., Astronomy and Physics (Cum Laude), Minnesota State University, Mankato, 5/7/2004

Awards and Scholarships:

Dean's List, Minnesota State University, Mankato (Spring 2001, Fall 2001, Spring 2002, Fall 2002)

Standeford Scholarship, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2003

Work Experience:

Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington. Instrumentation Postdoctoral Scientist. (2009-present)

Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Wyoming. Research Assistant. (2005-2009)
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Wyoming. Teaching Assistant. (2004)

Department of Physics & Astronomy, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Teaching Assistant. (2003-2004)

College of Arts & Sciences Student Advisory Committee, Dept of Physics & Astronomy Representative. (2003-2004)
Standeford Observatory, Minnesota State University. Observing Assistant. (2001-2004)

Observing Experience:

Red Buttes Observatory (RBO) 0.6m DFM research telescope. ~100 nights, near infrared photometry with BIRCAM.

WIRO, University of Wyoming. 2.3m research telescope. ~100 nights, CCD photometry, long slit/integral field spectroscopy.

Andreas Observatory, Minnesota State University, Mankato. 0.5m DFM research telescope, 50+ nights, ccd photometry, long slit spectroscopy.

Standeford Observatory, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Assorted telescopes, 100+ nights, basic night sky observations.

Research Interests:

Astronomical instrumentation, which includes: the design, manufacture, testing and implementation of new instrumentation, predominantly (near-infrared) imagers.

Calibrating the Cepheid PL relation at NIR wavelength to better constrain the Hubble Constant.

Development of the instrumentation as well as the observation and reduction techniques necessary to measure the fundamental quantities in astronomy, including: astrometry (proper motions and parallax), spectroscopy (radial velocities and metal abundance) and time variability.

Publications:

BIRCAM: A Near-Infrared Camera for The University of Wyoming Red Buttes Observatory, Monson, Andrew. J.; Pierce, Michael. J., Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 121, issue 881, pp.728-734 (2009)

Discovery of a New Low-Latitude Milky Way Globular Cluster Using GLIMPSE, Kobulnicky, Henry A.; Monson, A. J. etal, The Astronomical Journal, Volume 129, Issue 1, pp. 239-250 (2005)

A Radial Velocity Survey of the Cyg OB2 Association, Kiminki, Daniel C.; Kobulnicky, Henry A.; Kinemuchi, K.; Irwin, Jennifer S.; Fryer, Christopher L.; Berrington, R. C.; Uzpen, B.; Monson, Andy J.; Pierce, Michael J.; Woosley, S. E., The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 664, Issue 2, pp. 1102-1120.

The Frequency of Mid-Infrared Excess Sources in Galactic Surveys, Uzpen, B.; Kobulnicky, H. A.; Monson, A. J.; Pierce, M. J.; Clemens, D. P.; Backman, D. E.; Meade, M. R.; Babler, B. L.; Indebetouw, R.; Whitney, B. A.; Watson, C.; Wolfire, M. G.; Benjamin, R. A.; Bracker, S.; Bania, T. M.; Cohen, M.; Cyganowski, C. J.; Devine, K. E.; Heitsch, F.; Jackson, J. M.; Mathis, J. S.; Mercer, E. P.; Povich, M. S.; Rho, J.; Robitaille, T. P.; Sewilo, M.; Stolovy, S. R.; Watson, D. F.; Wolff, M. J.; Churchwell, E., The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 658, Issue 2, pp. 1264-1288.

Corrigendum: Rotational Periods of Asteroids 1165 Imprinetta, 1299 Mertona, 1645 Waterfield, 1833 Shmakova, 2313 Aruna, and (13856) 1999 XZ105, Monson, Andy; Kipp, Steven. The Minor Planet Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 4, p. 97 (2004)

Rotational Periods of Asteroids 1165 Imprinetta, 1299 Mertona, 1645 Waterfield, 1833 Shmakova, 2313 Aruna, and (13856) 1999 XZ105, Monson, Andy; Kipp, Steven. The Minor Planet Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 3, p. 71-73 (2004)

Conference Proceedings:

A Near-Infrared Survey of Northern Galactic Cepheid Variable Stars, Monson, A. J.; Pierce, M. J., Cheesbrough, V., American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #430.04;

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.701

A Near-Infrared Survey of Northern Galactic Cepheid Variable Stars, Monson, A. J.; Cheesbrough, V., Pierce, M. J., American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #433.07;

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.302

BIRCAM: A Near-Infrared Camera for the Red Buttes Observatory, Monson, A. J.; Pierce, M. J., American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #11.17; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.747

An Update on the Radial Velocity Survey in Cygnus OB2, Kiminki, Daniel C.; Kobulnicky, H. A.; Kinemuchi, K.; Irwin, J. S.; Fryer, C. L.; Berrington, R. C.; Uzpen, B.; Monson, A. J.; Pierce, M. A.; Woosley, S. E.,2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #162.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.1127

Spectral Indices of Early Type Galaxies in Rich Clusters of Galaxies, Berrington, Robert C., Pierce, M. ; Monson, A., 2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #199.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.1177

Candidate Massive Binaries in Cygnus OB2, Irwin, S.; Kiminki, D.; Kinemuchi, K.; Kobulnicky, H. A.; Pierce, M.; Monson, A.,American Astronomical Society Meeting 207, #114.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, p.1347

Resolved Stars and Unresolved Light in NGC 1311, Eskridge, P. B.; Monson, A. J.; Jansen, R. A.; Taylor, V. A.; Windhorst, R. A.; de Grijs, R.,American Astronomical Society Meeting 205, #93.16; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 36, p.1494

Outreach:

2004-08 WIRO Open House.
2001-04 Andreas/Standeford Observatory Open House.
2001 Traverse de Sioux library system summer portable planetarium operator.
1998-99 High School Fall/Spring Planetarium program and telescope viewing.

Computer Experience:

Platforms:

Mac OS X, Linux, Windows

Software/languages:

Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF)

Super Mongo (SM)

Fortran / C / Java

SolidWorks / CosmosWorks: 3D-drawing / FEA analysis

QCAD: 2D-drawing

National Instruments: LabView, MultiSim

Latex (TexShop )

Microsoft Office: Excel / Powerpoint / Word

OpenOffice: Impress / Writer

Zemax: Optical element design and analysis