Dr. Rick Shafer
- Employer: NASA
- Job Description: Astrophysicist
- Phone: (301) 286-3463
- e-mail: Richard.A.Shafer @ nasa.gov
Rick Shafer earned his S.B. from M.I.T. (1975) and a physics Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, (1983) working primarily at the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His dissertation, was on the fluctuations in the diffuse X-ray background, using primarily data from the HEAO 1 A-2 experiment. During his first post doc (1983-1985), at the Institute of Astronomy of Cambridge University, England, he collaborated in the design and implementation of the XANADU package, in particular writing the first versions the X-ray spectra data analysis program XSPEC (through 1987). In 1985-1987 Rick was a science support astronomer at the European Space Agency's EXOSAT Observatory operations center, at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany, with further consulting work at ESTEC in Nordwijk, the Netherlands.
In 1987, he returned to Goddard to join the Infrared Astrophysics Branch (later the Laboratory for Experimental Cosmology) as the deputy Principle Investigator for the FIRAS instrument on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), under John Mather. He had responsibility for scientific oversight of the instrument integration and test and in orbit operation. As a member of the COBE Science Working Group he contributed to the COBE science results from all three instruments, including results on the spectrum and spatial fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background and the first measurements of a diffuse infrared background.
After COBE he worked with the bolometer development group headed by Harvey Moseley (1997-2006), which included electronics and data system design for new generation Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers to be used on the SAFIRE instrument on SOFIA. At this time he also participated in ground based observations using the Goddard provided array in the SHARC II instrument at the CalTech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea. He continues to collaborate on the analysis of ground based deep observations in the submillimeter and millimeter band.
Rick is currently a support scientist with the at the U.S. Guest Observer Facility of the XMM-Newton Observatory, an element of the Goddard HESARC. He has wide ranging research interests in statistical issues of data analysis, instrument modeling, handling very large data sets and large number of parameter models, modeling source counts and luminosity functions, confusion noise, astrophysical diffuse backgrounds (microwave, infrared, X-ray), the cosmic evolution of active galactic nuclei and the cosmic star formation rate, instrument signal processing and data system design, bolometer and calorimeter arrays, among others.