September 23, 2002
UCSC receives $9.1 million grant to establish
a Laboratory for Adaptive Optics
Moore Foundation grant is the largest from a private foundation
in campus history
By Tim Stephens
UCSC has received a grant of $9.1 million from the Gordon and Betty
Moore Foundation to establish a Laboratory for Adaptive Optics. The
new laboratory strengthens UCSC's position as an astronomy powerhouse
and a national center for research on the exciting new technology of
adaptive optics. The grant is the largest contribution from a private
foundation in the history of the campus.
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The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics will be used to develop
and test prototypes for advanced adaptive optics technology. The
adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory includes the "laser
guide star" shown in this photo.
Credit: Laurie Hatch, Lick Observatory |
The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics will develop innovative instrumentation
for the application of adaptive optics technology in astronomy. Adaptive
optics sharpen the vision of ground-based telescopes by removing the
blurring effects of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere.
The new laboratory complements the Center for Adaptive Optics, headquartered
at UCSC and established in 1999 with a $20 million grant from the National
Science Foundation. The center focuses on the advancement of adaptive
optics technology in astronomy and vision science. The Laboratory for
Adaptive Optics will be administered by UC Observatories/Lick Observatory
(UCO/Lick), which already oversees a set of world-class technical facilities
for astronomical instrumentation on the UCSC campus, including an optical
lab and shops, an engineering lab, and an advanced detector lab.
"This grant builds on UCSC's existing strengths in astronomy,
astronomical instrumentation, and adaptive optics, and we are extremely
grateful to the Moore Foundation for their very generous support of
this important work," said UCSC Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood.
The new grant will help establish the campus as the leading institution
in the world for research in adaptive optics, Greenwood said. As the
home campus for UCO/Lick, UCSC has long been prominent in the field
of astronomy. Its Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics has been
ranked number one in the country for the impact of its faculty's research
in the field of astrophysics.
"UC Santa Cruz is a superb location for the Laboratory for Adaptive
Optics, which will play a major role in the future of astronomy and
other fields where high-quality images are important," said Ed
Penhoet, senior director of science and education at the Moore Foundation.
The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics will enable researchers to develop
prototypes of advanced adaptive optics equipment and concepts and test
them in a controlled laboratory setting. It will also serve as a training
facility where researchers and students can gain experience with adaptive
optics equipment. It will be the first such comprehensive university
laboratory dedicated to adaptive optics in the United States, said Joseph
Miller, director of UCO/Lick.
"In many ways, adaptive optics is still in its infancy, and the
potential is great for the development of powerful new equipment and
techniques. A laboratory like this is important for furthering the development
of this technology," Miller said.
The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics will serve as a testing facility
for ideas and concepts developed at the Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO),
which does not have laboratories or experimental facilities directly
associated with it at UCSC, said Claire Max, professor of astronomy
and astrophysics and an associate director of CfAO. Max is the lead
scientist on the Moore Foundation grant; Miller and CfAO director Jerry
Nelson are coprincipal investigators.
"The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics gives UCSC and UCO/Lick an
entirely new capability that will be the foundation for many future
projects and significant advances in adaptive optics systems,"
Max said.
The laboratory will focus initially on developing equipment for two
cutting-edge concepts in adaptive optics: extreme adaptive optics and
multi-conjugate adaptive optics. Extreme adaptive optics promises to
give astronomers the ability to directly detect and study planets around
other stars far beyond our own solar system. More than 80 of these "extrasolar"
planets have been detected in recent years by indirect measurements
of the gravitational effects the planets have on their parent stars.
Direct imaging of such planets would enable astronomers to learn more
about their properties and perhaps even to detect signs of life.
Multi-conjugate adaptive optics involves making multiple corrections
to account for the effects of turbulence at different levels in the
atmosphere. It also enables the adaptive optics system to correct for
the effects of turbulence over a much larger area of the sky. Multi-conjugate
adaptive optics will be essential for the extremely large telescopes
astronomers plan to build in the near future.
According to Max, however, considerable advances over existing technology
are needed to put the theory of multi-conjugate adaptive optics into
practice.
The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics will enable researchers to build
and test prototype equipment for both extreme adaptive optics and multi-conjugate
adaptive optics, Max said.
"We will be able to test new components and new algorithms under
controlled conditions, and compare different ways of optimizing the
performance of adaptive optics systems," she said. "One of
the problems with testing equipment on a telescope is that you never
know exactly what the atmosphere was doing during your test, whereas
in the lab you can impose a known mock-up of what the atmosphere might
do."
Miller said he expects the new laboratory to be up and running within
a year. Several options are under consideration for the lab's location,
including sites adjacent to the existing UCO/Lick optical labs.
"I am overjoyed that UC Santa Cruz has been awarded this sensational
gift," commented Marion Cope, chair of the Development Committee
for the UC Santa Cruz Foundation. "I have watched this young campus
attain national and international recognition for its outstanding research.
Support from private sources is crucial to maintain this upward trajectory.
Many thanks to the Moore Foundation."
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is a private, family, grant-making
institution dedicated to the improvement of the quality of life through
education, science, and conservation. The Foundation emphasizes grant
outcomes that affect future generations. Established by Intel cofounder
Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty, the foundation funds projects in four
program areas: higher education, scientific research, the environment,
and selected San Francisco Bay Area projects. The foundation began operations
in late 2000 and is headquartered in San Francisco.
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