New Associate Director for Development

With great pleasure Gemini Director Doug Simons announces the appointment of Dr. Eric Tollestrup to the position of Associate Director for Development at Gemini. Eric has been at the UH Institute for Astronomy (IfA) since 2003, where he has been the Deputy Director of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). His research interests have included high-resolution studies of the Galactic Center, deep near infrared ground-based surveys of galaxies, galaxy number counts, ultra-deep surveys with Spitzer, 1 to 20 um studies of star formation region, speckle interferometry, adaptive optics, and telescope optics. He also has an extensive back ground in developing visible, IR , and radio instrumentation for both ground- and space-based observatories, with an emphasis on developing infrared arrays. Previously to being at the IfA, Eric was on the faculty and staff at the Astronomy Department and the Institute for Astrophysical Research at Boston University for 3 years, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from 1989 to 2000, and an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Texas. He obtained a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD for the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1987. He is starting part-time to overlap with Dr. Joe Jensen, Gemini’s Head of Instrumentation, during Joe’s remaining days at Gemini, while also finishing an important project at IRTF. Eric will transition to full time at Gemini no later than 1 January 2010.