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Class Notes

TELESCOPE TEAMWorking on the Webb
webbTESTING: Several Rochester alumni took part in a series of tests of the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston last summer and fall. From left to right are Renee Saunders Gracey ’90, Matthew Bergkoetter ’17 (PhD), Tom Zielinski ’11, Scott Paine (PhD candidate), Alden Jurling ’15 (PhD), Kim Mehalick ’85, Lee Feinberg ’87, Mark Waldman ’75, ’78 (MS), Joe Howard ’00 (PhD), and Garrett West ’12, ’14 (MS). According to Waldman, participating in the project, but not pictured, are David Aronstein ’02 (PhD), Joe Cosentino ’14, ’15 (MS), John Johnston ’93, Conrad Wells ’89, ’91 (MS), Tony Whitman ’88 (MS), and Michael Zarella ’13. (Photo: courtesy of Mark Waldman ’75, ’78 (MS))

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s James Webb Space Telescope, under way since 1996, is scheduled to launch in May 2020. When it does, it promises to yield knowledge about the universe that surpasses even what the awe-inspiring images of its predecessor, the Hubble telescope, have shown.

Last summer and fall, several Rochester alumni played roles in a series of tests of some of the key elements of the telescope. The tests took place from July through October at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Writes optical consultant Mark Waldman ’75, ’78 (MS): “U of R graduates supported the cryo-vacuum testing of the James Webb Space Telescope. . . . In this test, the Webb’s Optical Telescope Element and Integrated Science Instrument Module (OTIS) was placed in the space center’s Chamber A, where it was subjected to a simulated space environment, including high vacuum and cryogenic temperatures to 40 Kelvin, for 100 days. The system underwent optical, thermal, and functional testing, which had been planned for over 10 years.”

Several Rochester faculty are also prominent among scientists working on the telescope. They include Duncan Moore, the Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Professor in Optical Engineering Science, who chairs the product integrity board advising NASA on the project; James Fienup, the Robert E. Hopkins Professor of Optics; and professors of physics and astronomy William Forrest and Judith Pipher.