I build optical and near-infrared instruments for telescopes on Earth. Currently I'm involved in the design and future test plans for 's focal plane.
Before, I worked on : a multi-object spectrograph with over 940 optical fibres that can be individually placed by two robotic fibre positioners. This instrument is now installed on the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, where it will soon start its five-year survey of the northern sky. In particular, I worked on those robotic fibre positioners: building and testing each element to ensure that the robots can position the optical fibres with the required precision of 8 microns. I also built the WEAVE-LIFU; a Large Integral Field Unit consisting of 547 optical fibres tightly packed in a hexagonal shape. The LIFU is being used to commission the whole instrument on sky, and has already taken .
I really enjoy doing outreach, whether that's teaching a lesson in a classroom setting, giving a lecture, or chatting with people about space and telescopes at a science festival. It's lovely to be enthusiastic about astronomy together.