Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Current Institution: Fermilab
LinkedIn: Lauren Saunders | LinkedIn
Advisor: Laura Newburgh
Degree Date: August 2023
Thesis Title: Telescope Pointing for the Simons Observatory: Data Acquisition & Control Software, Calibration, and Modeling
Thesis Abstract: The Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey experiment located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, at an elevation of 5200 m. It is made up of one 6 m Large Aperture Telescope and three 0.5 m Small Aperture Telescopes, and will study the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the CMB. SO will probe the CMB at the smallest angular scales achieved thus far, and with the highest polarization sensitivity, in search of definitive evidence for inflation in the early universe, a glimpse at the dark matter candidates that may have been abundant in the early universe, and improved measurements of L CDM cosmology. Telescope pointing is one of the limiting systematics to the SO scientific outlook, and needs to be well-calibrated and well-understood. I discuss here the instrumentation software efforts to support telescope pointing and scanning, as well as the development of analysis tools for calibrating pointing.
Information Updated: 7/17/25
