Aaron R. Parsons (born 1980) is an American astrophysicist who works primarily in the fields of

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...

instrumentation and experimental

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

Biography

Parsons was born in 1980. He grew up in

Rangely, Colorado Rangely is a Colorado municipalities#Statutory town, statutory town in Rio Blanco County, Colorado, Rio Blanco County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,299 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Rangely is the home of Color ...

and graduated simultaneously from high school and from

Colorado Northwestern Community College Colorado Northwestern Community College (CNCC) is a public community college with campuses in Rangely and Craig, Colorado, United States. The college participates in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) and the National Junior ...

with an AS degree in 1998. He majored in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and graduated with a BA in 2002. After working as a development engineer at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab from 2002 to 2004, Parsons entered graduate school at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, receiving his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 2009 while holding a predoctoral research position at

Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science F ...

in Puerto Rico. Parsons returned to UC Berkeley on an

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...

postdoctoral fellowship in 2009. He was hired as an assistant

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the Astronomy Department and in the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at UC Berkeley in 2011.

Research

Parsons is the principal investigator of the

Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization The Donald C. Backer Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) is a radio interferometer funded by the National Science Foundation to detect 21 cm hydrogen (HI) fluctuations occurring when the first galaxies ionized inter ...

(PAPER) array, a radio interferometer designed to detect the first era of star formation, commonly called the Epoch of Reionization, via its effect on hydrogen in the

intergalactic medium Intergalactic may refer to: * "Intergalactic" (song), a song by the Beastie Boys * ''Intergalactic'' (TV series), a 2021 UK science fiction TV series * Intergalactic space * Intergalactic travel, travel between galaxies in science fiction and ...

. He specializes in digital signal processing instrumentation, and was one of the founding members of the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER).

Honors

Charles Townes Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with b ...

Fellow (2008) * NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Fellow (2009) * Mary Elizabeth Uhl Prize (2009) *

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

(2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Aaron R. Living people American cosmologists 21st-century American astronomers University of California, Berkeley faculty 1980 births Harvard College alumni 21st-century American physicists People from Rangely, Colorado University of California, Berkeley alumni Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers