We are delighted to welcome Abhijit Saha as the newest member of the Kitt Peak scientific staff. Abi comes to us most recently from Space Telescope Science Institute, where he was formerly chief of the User Support Branch. Abi received his PhD from Caltech for his work with J.B. Oke on RR Lyrae stars in the Galactic Halo, then spent two years as a Kitt Peak postdoc. He is known for his research on the distances to nearby galaxies determined through Cepheid calibrators. Abi is already ramping up on a substantial set of observatory responsibilities, including those of WIYN Telescope Scientist, the WIYN Queue, the WIYN Imager, and the 2.1-meter Direct CCD imager.
We are also extremely pleased to welcome Jeff Valenti as a new Kitt Peak postdoctoral fellow. Jeff comes to us from the University of Colorado, where he worked with Jeff Linsky as a STIS postdoc. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley, working with Gibor Basri on Photospheric Signatures of Stellar Activity. Jeff is studying the magnetic properties of main sequence stars, and their relationship to both dynamo parameters and chromospheric and coronal heating. He is actively involved with the Phoenix high-resolution spectrograph as an observer, instrument support team member, and documenter.
We are happy to be the host institution for Shoko Sakai as the recipient of a NASA Long-Term Space Astrophysics grant. She is studying the properties of the red giant branch tip as a potential distance indicator for galaxies.
We regret that we must say farewell to Arjun Dey. Arjun is changing from a Kitt Peak postdoc to a Hubble Fellowship, which he will take at Johns Hopkins. Arjun has played a key role as co-PI with Buell Jannuzi on the NOAO Deep-Wide Survey to map the evolution of galaxies and large-scale structure. We wish Arjun great success in the next phases of his career, and look forward to continuing productive collaboration as the survey progresses.
Richard Green