Russ Laher, Ph.D., MBA

California Institute of Technology
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
M/S 314-6
Pasadena, CA 91125
Office phone: (626) 395-2596
E-mail: laher @ ipac.caltech.edu

Responsibility: Development of the Science Data Quality Analysis (SDQA) subsystem.

Expertise:

  • Software development for astronomical image-processing pipelines and databases
  • Technical management of engineering/software projects and development teams
  • Target detection and tracking theory and algorithms, signal processing, digital-image processing, synthetic aperture radar theory and algorithms, nonlinear solvers, artificial neural networks, and Fourier-transform numerical methods.
  • Diatomic molecular spectroscopy

Something about me: As a physics undergraduate student at Utah State University, I designed and built an autonomous experiment to measure the thermal conductivity of an oil/water mixture in microgravity. It was included in a multi-experiment payload that flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-4 (launched June 27, 1982).

Recent Publications:

  • Radiative transition parameters for the A 1Σ+u-X 1Σ+g band system of 107, 109Ag2, Russ R. Laher, Murtadha A. Khakoo, A. Antic-Jovanovic 2008, J. Mol. Spectrosc., 248, 111.
  • Electron impact excitation of the (v″=0) to the a″ 1Σ+g, b 1Πu, c 1Πu, o 1Πu, b″ 1Σ+u, c″ 1Σ+u, F 3Πu and G 3Πu states of molecular nitrogen, Khakoo, Murtadha A., Shi-Yang Wang, Vaasu Swaminathan, Daniel Nuyujukian, Russ Laher , Brenton Lewis, Paul V. Johnson, Charles P. Malone, and Isik Kanik 2008, Phys. Rev. A, 77, 012704.
  • Refinement of the Spitzer Telescope Pointing History Based on Image Registration Corrections from Multiple Data Channels, Howard L. McCallon, John W. Fowler, Russ R. Laher, Frank J. Masci, and Mehrdad Moshir 2007, PASP, 119, 1308.
  • Direct evidence for channel-coupling effects in molecules: electron impact excitation of the a″1Σ+g state of N2, M. A. Khakoo, S. Wang, R. Laher, P. V. Johnson, C. P. Malone, and I. Kanik 2007, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 40, F167.
  • Franck-Condon factors and r-centroids for the A 1Σ+u-X 1Σ+g band system of 107, 109Ag2: comparison of the observed and calculated absorption band strengths, A. Antic-Jovanovic, M. Kuzmanovic, V. Bojovic, Murtadha A. Khakoo, Russ R. Laher 2007, Chinese Physics Letters 24, 2566.