Research Interests
Cosmic Origins Spectrograph:
In September 2007 I started working with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
team. COS is an ultraviolet (UV) spectrograph that was installed
on the Hubble Space Telescope on May 16, 2009. It will be the most
sensitive UV spectrograph ever flown on HST.
Molecules and Dust in the Interstellar Medium:
As part of my dissertation work at Hopkins, I studied the correlations
of the abundance of the carbon monoxide molecule and the shape of the
far-ultraviolet extinction curve along many lines of sight to Galactic
O and B stars (Burgh
et al. 2000). I have continued this research by using data from
the Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite as well as the Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph (STIS) to study the variations of the
CO/H2 ratio in the diffuse and translucent regimes of the
ISM (Burgh, France
& McCandliss 2007).
Currently, I am extending this work by incorporating measurements of
neutral atomic carbon to further define the "translucent cloud" regime
and test models of photodissociation regions (Burgh, France & Jenkins, in prep).
Atomic and Molecular Environments around Stars:  I am interested in the atomic and molecular composition of
interstellar and circumstellar material. This includes such diverse
environments as reflection nebulae, planetary nebulae, circumstellar
disks, dense molecular clouds, the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM),
and even planetary atmospheres. In particular, I am curious about how
ultraviolet starlight interacts with this atomic and molecular gas, as
well as interactions with dust. To that end, I have been involved in
several projects to look for ultraviolet extinction, absorption, and
emission. Astronomical Instrumentation:
I have been involved in designing and building astronomical
instrumentation since grad school, during which I worked with the JHU
Sounding Rocket Group. We flew a payload that comprised a
Dall-Kirkham telescope, with SiC overcoated optics and a windowless
ultraviolet spectrographic with double-delay-line anode detector. At JHU
I also helped in the development of ultraviolet lamps and a vacuum
ultraviolet collimator.
After grad school I worked for the Space Astronomy Laboratory at the
University of Wisconsin - Madison, where I was involved in the design
and assembly of the Robert Stobie Spectrograph for the Southern
African Large Telescope. It is a multi-operational spectrograph that
incorporates volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings, Fabry-Pérot
etalons, and polarimetric optics to perform long-slit, multi-slit and
imaging spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry.
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For my dissertation work in the