Seminar

Guest Speaker: Dr. Regina Caputo, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Title: Achieving the science of the extreme universe through developments in gamma-ray instrumentation

Abstract: The New Messengers and New Physics and Cosmic Ecosystem priority themes from the Astro2020 Decadal Survey are uniquely addressed at gamma-ray energies. The gamma-ray group at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, as part of a large effort together with many groups around the world, is developing technologies and future telescopes to enable observations to fill these critical capability gaps revealed by Fermi and fully capitalize on this exciting new era. This talk will present the development of CMOS silicon pixel detectors, called AstroPix, and their planned launch on a sounding rocket; the recent balloon launch of the ComPair gamma-ray prototype telescope; the next steps for ComPair; and community efforts to prioritize gamma-ray missions in the future.

Bio: Originally from Colorado, I obtained my Ph.D. at Stony Brook University in particle physics on the ATLAS experiment. My research has taken me from CERN to Santa Cruz/SLAC and finally to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where I currently work as a Research Scientist. As a particle physicist at heart turned astrophysicist, my research interests lie in understanding the particle nature of the universe: high-energy particle acceleration, the creation/interactions of black holes, and the major component of matter, Dark matter.  I develop new detectors and instruments to enable future space-based gamma-ray telescopes to make these observations a reality.