View in PDF format

PATRICK BROOS

Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pennsylvania State University (PSU)
525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802

patb@astro.psu.edu

Astronomy Research
Software Engineer, instrument team for the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) flying on NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, PSU (May 2005 to present)

In recent years I have developed data reduction and science analysis algorithms and tools that address far-reaching and timely issues in the ACIS observer community. These publicly-released and supported tools have improved the quality of numerous difficult ACIS studies and the productivity of many ACIS observers.

I developed ACIS Extract, an innovative software package for extraction and analysis of point-like and diffuse sources in studies that combine multiple ACIS observations.

I co-developed (with Leisa Townsley) an algorithm and tool for correcting ACIS data for charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) effects. For several years this was the only CTI correction available to ACIS observers.

I co-developed (with Leisa Townsley) a Monte-Carlo simulation of the ACIS CCD detectors.

Using our CCD simulator, I developed a tool to correct ACIS data for a type of non-linearity known as photon pile-up.

As a collaborator on numerous ACIS studies I have written a variety of smaller tools to address data analysis and data visualization tasks related to point source classification, catalog matching, adaptive-kernel image smoothing, and spectral fitting.

Most of this software was implemented in the IDL language under Unix.

Hardware Development
Software Systems Engineer, instrument team for the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) flying on NASA's Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer, PSU (April 2001 to May 2005)

Prior to joining the UVOT team I:

contributed to the Phase A Concept Study for Swift

served on Preliminary and Critical Design Review panels for the UVOT

served on the Preliminary Design Review panel for another Swift instrument, the XRT

After joining the UVOT team I had primary responsibility for:

data processing and compression algorithms used in flight software

design and construction of instrument observing sequences

and shared responsibility for:

flight software design, coding (C language under VxWorks), testing, and documentation

formal flight software integration tests, acceptance tests, and reviews

telemetry format design and lab telemetry processing software

support for instrument and observatory integration, testing, and calibration activities

instrument operations planning, procedures, and commanding scripts

support for mission simulations and early on-orbit operations

Software Engineer, ACIS instrument team, PSU (Aug 1994 to April 2001)

Assisted with calibration of optical blocking filters for ACIS at the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC) and the National Synchrotron Light Source. Modified beamline control software at the SRC.

Led development (C language) of a multi-threaded system, ATICA, to process packetized telemetry produced during ACIS ground calibration.

Developed (IDL language) an extensive set of interactive data visualization tools, TARA.

Participated in ground calibration of Chandra at the Marshall Space Flight Center, where ATICA and TARA were used for quick-look analysis of calibration data.

Assisted with analysis of Chandra ground calibration data with TARA.

Participated in Chandra's orbital activation, where ATICA and TARA were used for quick-look analysis of science data.

Software Engineer, CUBIC X-ray spectrometer, PSU ($<$1 year, 1995)

Co-developed (C language) flight software to control camera and telemeter science data.

Production Engineer, Magneto-optical Storage Products, Hewlett Packard (2 years, 1989-91)

Developed and supervised manufacturing processes for production staff.

Helped materials engineers improve reliability and quality of magneto-optical disk drives.

Digital Hardware Engineer, ESL, Inc. (2 years, 1987-89)

Designed high-speed digital hardware using discrete logic and gate arrays.

Wrote real-time control software for image processing hardware.

Held DoD Top Secret security clearance.

EDUCATION
MS in Computer Science
University of Wyoming, Laramie (1993)
thesis entitled ``An Expert System for Telescope Scheduling''

Master of Electrical Engineering
Rice University, Houston (1987)

BS in Electrical Engineering
Rice University, Houston (1985)

REFERENCES
My references have been omitted from this online version.

PUBLICATIONS
As First Author

``A Catalog of Chandra X-ray Sources in the Carina Nebula,'' 2011, ApJS, 194, 2

``A Naive Bayes Source Classifier for X-ray Sources,'' 2011, ApJS, 194, 4¹

``Innovations in the Analysis of Chandra-ACIS Observations,'' 2010, ApJ, 714, 1582 (50 citations as of Feb. 2012)

``The Young Stellar Population in M17 Revealed by Chandra,'' 2007, ApJS, 169, 353

``Discarding piled-up events in ACIS,'' X-ray Optics, Instruments, and Missions, Proc. SPIE 3444, July 1998.

``Compositional Instance-Based Learning,'' Proc. of the Twelfth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1994.

``Compositional Instance-Based Acquisition of Preference Predicates,'' Proc. of the AAAI-93 Workshop on Case-Based Reasoning, 1993. (requires a fee)

As Co-author

My astronomy related publications can be found at the Astrophysics Data System digital library portal.

``The Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: 4 Ms Source Catalogs,'' Xue, Y. Q., et al. 2011, ApJS, 195, 10

``The Young Binary DQ Tau: A Hunt for X-ray Emission from Colliding Magnetospheres,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2011, ApJ, 730, 6

``An Introduction to the Chandra Carina Complex Project,'' Townsley, L., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 1¹

``Source Contamination in X-ray Studies of Star-Forming Regions: Application to the Chandra Carina Complex Project,'' Getman, K., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 3¹

``Carina OB Stars: X-ray Signatures of Wind Shocks and Magnetic Fields,'' Gagne, M., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 5¹

``Candidate X-ray Emitting OB Stars in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions,'' Povich, M., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 6¹

``Global X-ray Properties of the O and B Stars in Carina,'' Naze, Y., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 7¹

``X-ray Emission from the Double-binary OB-Star System QZ Car (HD 93206),'' Parkin, E., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 8¹

``X-ray Star Clusters in the Carina Complex,'' Feigelson, E., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 9¹

``Near-Infrared Properties of the X-ray-emitting Young Stellar Objects in the Carina Nebula,'' Preibisch, T., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 10¹

``A Chandra ACIS Study of the Young Star Cluster Trumpler 15 in Carina and Correlation with Near-infrared Sources,'' Wang, J., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 11¹

``The Chandra Carina Complex Project View of Trumpler 16,'' Wolk, S., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 12¹

``The Search for Low-Mass Companions of B Stars in the Carina Nebula Cluster Trumpler 16,'' Evans, N., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 13¹

``A Pan-Carina Young Stellar Object Catalog: Intermediate-mass Young Stellar Objects in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Mid-infrared Excess Emission,'' Povich, M., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 14¹

``The Chandra Carina Complex Project: Deciphering the Enigma of Carina's Diffuse X-ray Emission,'' Townsley, L., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 15¹

``The Integrated Diffuse X-ray Emission of the Carina Nebula Compared to Other Massive Star-forming Regions,'' Townsley, L., et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 16¹

``Further calibration of the Swift ultraviolet/optical telescope,'' Breeveld, A. A., et al. 2010, MNRAS, 406, 1687

``A Chandra Study of the Rosette Star-forming Complex. III. The NGC 2237 Cluster and the Region's Star Formation History,'' Wang, J., et al. 2010, ApJ, 716, 474

``Methods for Estimating Fluxes and Absorptions of Faint X-ray Sources,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2010, ApJ, 708, 1760

``Stellar Clusters in the NGC 6334 Star-Forming Complex,'' Feigelson, E. D., et al. 2009, AJ, 138, 227

``A Smoking Gun in the Carina Nebula,'' Hamaguchi, K., et al. 2009, ApJ, 695, L4

``A Catalog of X-Ray Point Sources from Two Megaseconds of Chandra Observations of the Galactic Center,'' Muno, M. P., et al. 2009, ApJS, 181, 110

``X-Ray Flares in Orion Young Stars. I. Flare Characteristics,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2008, ApJ, 688, 418

``A Chandra Study of the Rosette Star-forming Complex. I. The Stellar Population and Structure of the Young Open Cluster NGC 2244,'' Wang, J., et al. 2008, ApJ, 675, 464

``Photometric calibration of the Swift ultraviolet/optical telescope,'' Poole, T. S., et al. 2008, MNRAS, 383, 627

``The Stellar Population and Origin of the Mysterious High-Latitude Star-forming Cloud CG 12,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2008, ApJ, 673, 331

``An X-Ray Imaging Study of the Stellar Population in RCW 49,'' Tsujimoto, M., et al. 2007, ApJ, 665, 719

``An X-Ray Census of Young Stars in the Massive Southern Star-forming Complex NGC 6357,'' Wang, J., et al. 2007, ApJS, 168, 100

``X-Ray Study of Triggered Star Formation and Protostars in IC 1396N,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2007, ApJ, 654, 316

``Hard X-Rays from Ultracompact H II Regions in W49A,'' Tsujimoto, M., et al. 2006, ApJ, 653, 409

``Chandra Study of the Cepheus B Star-forming Region: Stellar Populations and the Initial Mass Function,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2006, ApJS, 163, 306

``A Chandra ACIS Study of 30 Doradus. II. X-Ray Point Sources in the Massive Star Cluster R136 and Beyond,'' Townsley, L. K., et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2164

``A Chandra ACIS Study of 30 Doradus. I. Superbubbles and Supernova Remnants,'' Townsley, L. K., et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2140

``The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope,'' Roming, P. W. A., et al. 2005, Space Sci. Rev., 120, 95

``Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project Census of X-Ray Stars in the BN-KL and OMC-1S Regions,'' Grosso, N., et al. 2005, ApJS, 160, 530

``Membership of the Orion Nebula Population from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2005, ApJS, 160, 353

``Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project: Observations and Source Lists,'' Getman, K. V., et al. 2005, ApJS, 160, 319

``The Spectra and Variability of X-Ray Sources in a Deep Chandra Observation of the Galactic Center,'' Muno, M. P., et al. 2004, ApJ, 613, 1179

``X-ray spectroscopy and variability of AGN detected in the 2 Ms Chandra Deep Field-North Survey,'' Bauer, F. E., et al. 2004, Advances in Space Research, 34, 2555

``The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope,'' Roming, P. W. A., et al. 2004, Proc. SPIE, 5165, 262

``10 MK Gas in M17 and the Rosette Nebula: X-Ray Flows in Galactic H II Regions,'' Townsley, L. K., et al. 2003, ApJ, 593, 874

``The Chandra Deep Field North Survey. XIII. 2 Ms Point-Source Catalogs,'' Alexander, D. M., et al. 2003, AJ, 126, 539

``A Deep Chandra Catalog of X-Ray Point Sources toward the Galactic Center,'' Muno, M. P., et al. 2003, ApJ, 589, 225

``The AGN source population in the Chandra Deep Field-North Survey: constraints from X-ray spectroscopy and variability,'' Bauer, F. E., et al. 2003, Astronomische Nachrichten, 324, 175

``Modeling charge transfer inefficiency in the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer,'' Townsley, L. K., et al. 2002, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 486, 751

``Simulating CCDs for the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer,'' Townsley, L. K., et al. 2002, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 486, 716

``X-Ray-emitting Young Stars in the Orion Nebula,'' Feigelson, E. D., et al. 2002, ApJ, 574, 258

``The Chandra Deep Field North Survey. V. 1 Ms Source Catalogs,'' Brandt, W. N., et al. 2001, AJ, 122, 2810

``The Chandra Deep Survey of the Hubble Deep Field North Area. IV. An Ultradeep Image of the HDF-N,'' Brandt, W. N., et al. 2001, AJ, 122, 1

``The Chandra Deep Survey of the Hubble Deep Field-North Area. II. Results from the Caltech Faint Field Galaxy Redshift Survey Area,'' Hornschemeier, A. E., et al. 2001, ApJ, 554, 742

``X-Ray Sources in the Hubble Deep Field Detected by Chandra,'' Hornschemeier, A. E., et al. 2000, ApJ, 541, 49

``Chandra X-Ray Observatory Study of the Orion Nebula Cluster and BN/KL Region,'' Garmire, G., et al. 2000, AJ, 120, 1426

``Mitigating Charge Transfer Inefficiency in the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer,'' Townsley, L. K., et al. 2000, ApJ, 534, L139

``Joint AXAF high-resolution mirror assembly and AXAF CCD Imaging Spectrometer calibration at the MSFC X-Ray Calibration Facility,'' Nousek, J. A., et al. 1998, Proc. SPIE, 3444, 225

``Automated acquisition of user preferences,'' K. Branting and P. Broos, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 46:55Ð77, 1997.

``CUBIC: x-ray CCD spectroscopy of the diffuse x-ray background,'' Burrows, D. N., et al. 1995, Proc. SPIE, 2518, 141

``The Galactic Plane Supplement: The Additional Observations,'' Canterna, R., et al., report to Mission Research Corp. and the U.S. Air Force (page 93), 1994

``Development of a New Computer-based Automatic Report Generating System for the High Volume Clinical Ultrasound Laboratory,'' Edelman, S, et al., supplement to Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Volume 3, Number 9, p197, 1984

February 2012