Predmore Associates

Stellar Solutions to Your Technical Problems

Read Predmore, Ph.D.

413-549-8554

Amherst, Massachusetts

predmore@PredmoreAssociates.com

Summary of Qualifications

Over 30 years experience in the development and implementation of low-noise microwave and millimeter wave receiver and radiometer systems. Developed and implemented IF and signal processing systems, including digital correlators. Experienced in antenna optics design and precision metrology for antenna optics. Have served as Project Manager for 14 technical systems.

Professional Experience

1975-2002 University of Massachusetts Amherst at the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory

Started as a Research Engineer and rose to position of Research Professor of Astronomy.

• Chief metrologist for the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), a joint project between the University of Massachusetts and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) in Mexico. Responsible for the specification and design of metrology systems to measure the telescope panels during manufacture and to maintain the alignment of the optical elements during LMT operation.

• Project managed development of an infrared (IR) camera utilizing the NICMOS IR array. This camera was developed for the Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) on Mt. Hopkins in Arizona.

• Project Manager and technical leader for a set of 16 digital correlators. Each correlators had 1024 custom chips and achieved bandwidths of 2.5 to 80 MHz. These correlators were very reliable in their eight years of operation.

• Researched Acousto-Optical Spectrometer (AOS) technology for use in signal processing in radio astronomy. Built and tested an AOS system, including a real-time VME based data acquisition system.

• Project Manager and system engineer for a continuous comparison 97 GHz radiometer developed for the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

• Designed a Schottky mixer that was used to develop the world's most sensitive cryogenic receiver in the 85 to 115 GHz band.

• Developed polarization instrumentation, measurement techniques and software to measure linear and circular polarization as well as full Stokes parameters in the 7mm, 3mm, 2mm and 1mm wavelength bands.

• Various projects in millimeter wavelength Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) since 1978. These astronomical measurements involved the simultaneous acquisition of data at radio telescopes throughout the world requiring frequency stabilities of 1 part in 10^15 and time synchronization to 100 nanoseconds, as well as logistical coordination.

1982 - 83 Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) in Grenoble, France and Helsinki University of Technology in Espoo, Finland

• As visiting Research Engineer, developed 230 GHz receivers for use on the IRAM 30m diameter millimeter telescope in Spain and collaborated on an 115 GHz cryogenic receiver.

1972 - 75 National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia and Soccoro, New Mexico

• Microwave/millimeter wave engineer on the data communication and IF system for the Very Large Array in the 26 to 52 GHz frequency band. Developed and patented a helical coupler from rectangular to TE01 circular waveguide.

1967 - 72 Rice University in Houston, Texas

• As Assistant Professor of Space Science, taught upper-level undergraduate physics courses and continued research on the abundance of He3 in the interstellar medium.

• As a consultant, developed a sub-millimeter laser.

• As a graduate student, helped develop, construct, implement and use a 8.7 GHz cryogenic receiver.

1971 NASA Ames Research Center

• As a Postdoctoral Fellow worked on Project Cyclops, an Engineering Design Study that investigated the feasibility of searching for microwave signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. Co-chaired microwave receiver group.

1962 - 67 U.S. Naval Ships Research & Development Laboratory in Annapolis, Maryland

• As a cooperative work-study student, worked on acoustic measurements and equipment maintenance and improvement for the Ships Silencing Division.

Education

Professional Affiliations

• Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Antennas and Propagation Society
• Computer Society
• Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society
• Microwave Theory and Techniques Society
• Signal Processing Society


• Sustaining member of American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE)


• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

• B89.4.19 Standards Committee for "Performance Evaluation of Laser Based Spherical Coordinate Measurement Systems"


• International Union of Radio Science (URSI)

• Commission J (Radio Astronomy)