Amanda A. S. Gulbis: WORK
I am currently an astronmer for the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) (hosted by the South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa).
I am also a visiting scientist in the department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.).
In addition to my duties as a SALT astronomer, my personal research interests include:
(1) deciphering Pluto's atmosphere through the synthesis of atmospheric models and stellar occultation data, spanning 1998-2008;
(2) stellar occultation observations of small bodies in the outer solar system -- recent observations include two by Pluto, P445. 3 (S.W. US; Person et al., 2008 & McCarthy et al., 2008) and P384.2 (Australia; Elliot et al., 2007), and C313.2 by Charon (S. America; Person et al., 2007 & Gulbis et al., 2006a);
(3) Kuiper Belt object orbital properties and colors (recent papers are Gulbis et al., 2006b and Elliot et al., 2005);
(4) instrumentation for occultation observations – we have recently developed a group of POETS– Portable Occultation, Eclipse and Transit Systems (Gulbis et al., 2008 & Souza et al., 2006) a relative of which is now mounted on NASA's 3-m IRTF on Mauna Kea, HI.
There are more details about these projects on my SAAO webpage.
My thesis work was based on dusty plasma experiments and their relation to dust dynamics near planetary surfaces. By popular demand (ha), you can download a copy of my thesis. Check out the friendly dusty plasma group at the University of Colorado at Boulder for the latest research.
(My maiden name is Sickafoose, which explains older publications and the extra initial.)
"Of course, you may ask, what have numbers
got to do with it? And that's right, too. We get too depressed by them, and
should be more accepting of multitudes than we are. Being in point of size
precisely between the suns and the atoms, living among astronomical conceptions,
with every thumb and fingerprint a mystery, we should get used to living with
huge numbers. In the history of the world many souls have been, are, and will
be, and with a little reflection this is marvelous and not depressing. Many
jerks are made gloomy by it, for they think quantity buries them alive.That's
just crazy. Numbers are very dangerous, but the main thing about them is they
humble your pride. And that's good."
from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow