Our Research

Welcome!

The Remote Sensing for Space Sciences group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University conducts research that is focused on two branches of the field of remote sensing:

Typically the techniques and instrumentation we develop in one branch have application in the other.

Our group is also a member of GSU’s Imaging Hub which is a part of GSU’s Imaging for Global Solutions Intiative.. The Imaging Hub is a consortium of faculty, postdocs and students from the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, Computer Science and Biology who involved in cutting-edge Imaging research.

Students working with our group have the opportunity to participate in a cross-disciplinary team with strong ties to researchers inside and outside of the academic world, both here in the USA and internationally. In addition, students working with our group  have the opportunity to participate in a dual Ph.D. program with the University of Rome, Italy (Ph.D. in Astronomy from Georgia State University and a Ph.D. in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science from the University of Rome).

For more details, click on the embedded links.

Research Group

We design, build, and field instruments. We also conduct  numerical simulations and develop custom algorithms for data reduction and analysis.

Faculty

Fabien Baron
Stuart M. Jefferies

Staff

Dmitriy Shcherbik                         Senior Research Associate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adjunct Faculty/Staff

Douglas Hope                                         Senior Research Associate

Ph.D. Researchers

Megan Birch                                              (advisors: S. Jefferies, D. Hope)
Varun Chaturmutha                                 2CI Fellow                                         (advisors: S. Jefferies, B. Fleck)
Ryan Hall                                                           2CI Fellow                                                     (advisor: S. Jefferies)
Daniel Johns                                                  2CI Fellow                                                       (advisors: F. Baron, S. Jefferies)
Fallon Konow                                                2CI Fellow                                            (advisors: S. Jefferies, N. Murphy, W. Rodgers)

Assistant Researchers

Leti Garcia                                            (advisors: S. Jefferies, F. Baron)

 

Ty Tidrick                                    (advisors: S. Jefferies, D. Hope)

Scientific articles with student authors

Previous Team Members

The team for the $5M SURI award (2023-2028) from the Air Force.
The RSSS group and collaborators at Deborah’s Ph.D. Defense, November 2022

Optics Laboratory

We are developing an optics laboratory for rapid prototyping and testing of instruments that have been developed and validated using numerical simulations. Once the performance of an instrument has been practically validated, the laboratory also serves as a testing and calibration facility for the field version of the instrument.

Graduate students Arturo Martinez, Daniele Calchetti and Caleb Abbott (left to right) building the first components of the ARES turbulence generator.
Graduate student Daniel Johns working with the upgraded ARES system (2023-2024)

Our group has received two awards from the Department of Defense DURIP program to build an advanced atmospheric simulator and testbed for the validation of novel methods for high-resolution imaging through atmospheric turbulence (ARES: a simulator for the Advanced Reconnaissance of Earth-orbiting Satellites).

An early version of the ARES system configured for an experiment to study an AO-compensated uplink for ground-based optical communication with satellites.
The upgraded ARES system (2024)

Collaborations

Our group participates in a number of close collaborations with other  research groups here in the USA and in Europe.  These interactions offer a number of opportunities for students including cross-disciplinary research, exposure to the different research environments in academia, national laboratories,  government and private business, summer internships, and international exchanges.

University of Rome, Tor Vergata (UNITOV)

Prof. Francesco Berrilli

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Dr. Douglas Hope

Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii

Prof. Jeff Kuhn

Government: Air Force Research Laboratory/Space Force

Dr. Cody Shaw

Government: European Space Agency/NASA

Dr. Bernhard Fleck
  • Internships at NASA/Goddard

Government: NASA/NASA AMES Research Center

Dr. Steve Howell
Dr. Arturo Martinez

Government: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. Neil Murphy

Government Contractors: Odyssey Consulting

Dr. Ryan Swindle

Private Business: Eddy Company/ Mojave Solar

Mr. Wayne Rodgers (Owner of the Eddy Company and Mojave Solar)
  • Consulting

Private Business: Advisory Ltd. (U.K.)

Dr. Gary Bamford                                         (Owner of Advisory Ltd.)

Contact

Enquiries about the Remote Sensing for Space Sciences Group should be addressed to

Prof. Stuart M. Jefferies

E-mail: sjefferies@gsu.edu

Phone: +1 (404) 413-6017

Mailing address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, 25 Park Place, Suite 608, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303

Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA