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RSI Personnel


RSI consists of scientists and engineers that have researched and developed a broad spectrum of technologies, including: 

Chris Rollins, Ph.D., Vice President
System Science, Radiometric Calibration, Space Instrumentation, Hyperspectral Imagery, Sparse aperture arrays, Optical Design.

Charles Manka, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist
Plasma Physics, Pulsed Lasers.

Mark Boies, Principal Research Scientist
Space instrumentation, System Engineering, IR Optical Design, Lidar systems, Contamination Science, System Calibration.

James N. Caron, Ph.D., Principal Scientist
Sparse Aperture Imaging, acousitcs, advanced image processing, imaging field tests, Nondestructive Evaluation, Laser-based Ultrasound.

Paul Delgado, B.S.E.E, Engineer
Electrical Engineer, analog circuitry, electrical design,  electronic fabrication & testing.

David Huber, Ph.D., Principal Scientist
Cosmic Rays, High Altitude Balloon Experiments, Metrology & Control, Optical Modeling.

John Kline, M.S., Principal Research Scientist
Micro-optical systems, Space propulsion, Plasma physics, High energy laser physics, Satellite optical communications, and Pulsed power.

Dan Sullivan
Ph.D., Principal Scientist
Aerospace engineer, mechanical engineer, space propulsion, microwave plasmas, and microwave thrusters.

Maria Salamon, B.S. Senior Scientist
Microspeakers fabrication, plasma polishing of inorganic materials, photoelectrochemical devices, shape memory alloys, metal hydrides, thin film oxide formation and processing techniques.

Laurie Seide, M.S. Principal Scientist
Optical Engineer performing flight design, performance analysis, and systems requirements.

Bill Will, B.S.E.E, Engineer
Electrical Engineer performing space flight electrical design,  electronic fabrication & testing; and sensor packaging.

Tmitri Zukowski, M.S. Principal Scientist
Laboratory and spaceflight optical systems development, integration, test and calibration.


Biographies


Dr. Chris Rollins, Senior Scientist, Vice PresidentChris Rollins

Education Ph.D., Physics, Northeastern University, 1984 M.S.,
Physics, Northeastern University, 1980 B. A., English Literature,
University of Rochester, 1976

Dr. Christopher J. Rollins received his M.S. (1980) and Ph.D. (1984) in Physics from Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Dr. Rollins joined RSI in 1992 to collaborate with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) on the Clementine lunar spacecraft project. As part of the Clementine Sensors Group, Dr. Rollins has been responsible for optical integration, testing, and operation of the Clementine sensors, from initial design through launch and operations. From 1991 to 1992, Dr. Rollins lectured at Northeastern University and researched detector design for experimental high energy physics. Concurrently, he researched avalanche diode development for supercollider applications and acoustical scattering from turbulence. From 1984 to 1990, he worked at Physical Sciences Inc. serving as group leader of Pulsed Laser Applications. He has authored or co-authored over forty journal articles and technical reports.




Mark Boies, Research Scientist,

M.S. degree in Physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1988.
B.S. degrees (with honors) in both Physics and Computer Science from Colorado State University in 1984. 

Experience: Mark is responsible for the business development of remote sensors and products with emphasis on the aerospace market.  He has developed laser radar systems and passive spectral imagers.  Many of these instruments have been flown on space-based platforms. 

Mark is currently the deputy program manager for the HICO/RAIDS mission at the Naval Research Laboratory.  This mission represents the first launch of a NASA payload on a Japanese launch vehicle.  It will be deployed on JAXA’s JEM-EF module on the International Space Station and meets both NASA and JAXA manned mission safety requirements.  Mark is also the program liaison for a sounding rocket program that provides target intercept assessment through spectral evaluation of the impact event.  He is a technology liaison for NASA on the focal plane module development for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) program

He led the RSI team that developed a non-imaging spectrometer to measure spectral signatures at ultra-high speeds (125 kHz).  He was the program manager for an international program with the Japanese government to design and build a vehicle-based DIAL (differential absorption laser radar) system for detection of methane gas leaks.  Mark was a principal investigator on the MSX (Midcourse Space Experiment) environmental monitoring science team.  Mark has been program manager for a frequency agile Lidar receiver developed for the Air Force and has been involved in the development of a spectral imaging system (visible to LWIR) used to help fight forest fires.  These various projects have required that he design several infrared optical elements including several for use in a cryogenic dewar.  He provides spaceborn environmental (contamination) instrument development and scientific analysis for sensors in the Hubble Service Missions (shuttle based). He has authored many papers and presentations covering optical instrumentation, space flight hardware, satellite contamination, and space born environmental findings.



Dr. David Huber, Principal Scientist,

Education: Ph.D., Physics, 1998 University of Delaware, Newark, DE

B.S., Cum Laude, Physics and Mathematics, 1988 Dickinson
College, Carlisle, PA

Experience: Dr. Huber has extensive computational and laboratory experience developed from studies of cosmic ray astrophysics and adaptive optical control systems. He has designed and constructed flight instrumentation for high altitude scientific balloon payloads, and has also developed mathematical models of these instruments for Monte Carlo analysis and simulation. His current work includes using the ZEMAX optical design package as well as Matlab and Simulink to design and implement, on a real time operating system, a high-speed active metrology and control system for wavefront control in an optical telescope system. Dr. Huber has programmed in a variety of computer languages (C, FORTRAN, BASIC, VisualBasic, and Python) on a variety of operating systems (Linux/Solaris, vxWorks, Microsoft Windows, DEC VMS, and Data General AOS/VSII). He has experience writing interrupt-driven control software to interoperate computers and specialized laboratory equipment via various interfaces that include serial ports, USB ports, ISA/PCI buses, and the VME backplane. Dr. Huber has written hardware drivers and analysis software for various imaging and non-imaging detectors.




Dr. James N. Caron, Principal Scientist,

Dr. Caron received his M.S. (1995) and Ph.D. (1997) in Physics from the University of Delaware, Newark, DE. During graduate study and post-doctorate work, Dr. Caron was the main researcher in the UD Laser Acoustics Lab giving him seven years experience in acoustics, optics, and electronics. He researched, designed, constructed, and operated the laser-based ultrasonic systems at UD. This includes designing and building photodetectors, servo circuits, filters, and amplifiers suitable for laser ultrasonics, operating and maintaining the Nd:YAG lasers, maintaining the laser ultrasonic system, and determining the course of the research. In this time, he invented Gas-coupled Laser Acoustic Detection. He has programming experience in Fortran, Turbo Pascal, Visual Basic and V++.


John Kline, Principal Research Scientist

John Kline is the
Founder/Manager of RSI Princeton Operations.  He was Principal Investigator for the CAMERA retroreflector project for NIST, the MASS microspeaker Phase II SBIR project for AFRL, Electron Beam-Controlled, Microwave-Driven Plasmas SBIR Phase II project for AFRL, the Nonequilibrium Ionization MHD project for AFRL, the Mars MHD Aerobraking project for NASA, the Microwave Electrothermal Ignition Source project for NASA, the Compact Micro-Torus eXperiment (CMTX) for NASA and the International Space Sciences Organization (ISSO).  He was Co-PI for development of new commercial high speed fiber optic pressure probes for use at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).    He has experience with micro-optical systems, space propulsion, plasma physics, high energy laser physics, satellite optical communications, and pulsed power.  Projects in-house at RSI and on-site at NRL have included development of a family of electrothermal thrusters, a plasma diagnostic system, micromachined optics, electron beam windows, micromachined ion optics, an X-ray multichannel detector for the NOVA laser fusion facility, an atmospheric pressure plasma generator, and a quantum well modulator optical link.  He has provided support for the measurement of high-energy, laser-produced shocks and infrared thermal imaging for CW laser survivability tests for NRL, and high-speed photography of advanced munitions tests for the Raytheon Company.


Dr. Daniel Sullivan, Principal Scientist,

Dr. Sullivan's primary research has been concerned with the practical application of microwave plasmas. Projects of current interest are the development of a microwave plasma electrothermal thruster, an experimental feasibility study on the use of microwave plasmas for active flow control of hypersonic vehicles, and an experimental study of flame speed enhancement through the application of microwave energy. These research programs have made use of various diagnostic techniques including LIF velocimetry, PIV techniques for flow field resolution, and Filtered Raleigh Scattering for 2-D resolution of flame temperature. Responsibilities include the writing of Phase I proposals, the management of contract funds and oversight of research staff, coordination with the Applied Physics Group of Princeton University who have been partners on some of the programs, filing of project progress reports and Phase II proposals, and marketing efforts to both government and commercial contacts. Engineering tools used commonly during the course of the research programs are LABView, Solid Works, Pro-E, AutoCad, FEMLAB, MathCad, and assorted image manipulation programs.



Tmitri J. Zukowski, Principal Scientist,

Education: M.S. Physics, California Institute of Technology 1986
B.S. Physics and B.S. Mathematics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1984.

Mr. Zukowski joined RSI in February, 2007.  He has extensive experience as an optical systems engineer performing hardware development, system tests, calibration, and laboratory experiments. He currently supports the James Webb Space Telescope project, conducting experiments on optical metrology and materials performance at cryo-vacuum conditions. He has contributed to numerous NASA projects in the past including SWIFT, EO-1, Aura, Terra, GOES, and HST. In addition, he has contributed to the development of the NRL high speed Non-Imaging Spectrograph, as well as several critical optical source GSE projects; he is joint patent holder for the GOES Wide Field Collimator light source.



Maria Salamon, Materials Science and Engineering,

Maria graduated in 2004 from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in Materials Science and Engineering.  She minored in Macromolecular Science and Engineering and Psychology.  Since joining RSI, Maria has played an active part in the fabrication of microspeakers, namely through troubleshooting device processing problems.  Additionally, she investigated the plasma polishing of inorganic materials for improved mechanical performance, and modifying and applying carbon nanotubes to use as a filter medium.  Her other interests include photoelectrochemical devices, shape memory alloys, metal hydrides, thin film oxide formation and processing techniques to prevent corrosion.


Laurie Seide, Optical Specialist,

Laurie graduated from the University of Arizona with a MS in Optical Sciences and a BS in Optical Engineering.  As a senior optical engineer for Ball Aerospace, she was responsible for the optical design and performance analysis of reflective and refractive telescope systems, covering bandwidths from the UV to infrared.  She managed the procurement of optics for the World View I commercial space telescope for Digital Globe, launched September 18, 2007.  She has also lent her expertise to the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the initial Deep Impact Proposal.