Research Statement
My interest is in formation and dynamics of open clusters, and detection of exoplanets/their atmospheres ? which requires high resolution, multi-object and precision radial velocity spectroscopy. As an instrument builder at heart over the past 15 years I have gained an extensive experience with designing and building such instruments, for small 1-2m telescopes through current large telescopes (like the 6.5m MMT and Magellan) to the 25m Giant Magellan Telescope. I am an expert on state-of-the-art fiber technologies and their application for spectroscopy, and just recently revitalized the Fiber Optics in Astronomy conference series by holding its 4th event last year..
