Ms. Nicole Gisela Czakon 柴宇捷

Observational Cosmologist ASIAA Postdoc Fellow

11F Astro-Math Bldg, NTU Taipei 10617, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Summary of Research Expertise

I study the history of the evolution of the universe. One of the primary tools that I use to this end is the signature of scattered cosmic microwave background light passing through galaxy clusters. Using this signature I am able to estimate the electron pressure inside of individual galaxy clusters and relate this to their mass measured with both X-ray and gravitational lensing measurements.

Summary of Technical Expertise

I use the Python programming language and both SQL and non-SQL databases to handle large amounts of data. Using various algorithms and multi-threading techniques, I reduce the dimensionality of the data in order to summarize my research findings as succinctly as possible. I have extensive experience coding in IDL and Matlab as well. I also have extensive experience working in laboratory settings to develop superconducting millimeter wave detectors for astronomical research.

Education

California Institute of Technology: PhD Physics 2013

Duke University: BS Physics Magna Cum Laude 2004

Scholarships and Awards

2009-2012 NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program full-stipend fellowship.

2004-2005 Fulbright Fellowship for nano-optics research in Minsk, Belarus.

2000-2004 Gates Scholarship, full-tuition, interdisciplinary studies.

Relevant skills

Programming

UNIX/LINUX, Python, Matlab, IDL, Labview, C++. VNC. VPN. Emacs/VI Sphinx documentation. Git/SVN subversion control. Familiarity with relational and noSQL(MongoDB) databases.

Theoretical

Statistics, error analysis, Fourier analysis, linear algebra, data manipulation, noise removal, optimal fitting.

Hardware

Optics, lasers, electronics, DAQ data acquisition and processing, cryogenics.

Professional Experience

Computational

  • ASIAA (2013-present) Leading a scientific computation/data analysis project. Large 500 GB data set analyzed with a 296-core cluster.

  • Cosmological model development to characterize statistical bias.

  • Galaxy Cluster Observations/Mass calibration to measure Dark Energy.

Experimental

  • Caltech (2008-2013) Led the laboratory development of cryogenic Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors for astrophysics.

  • Caltech/JPL (2005-2008) Lasers (Diode, Fiber) for quantum optics and LIDAR applications.

Languages

  • Mandarin (beginner/intermediate), English (native), German (fluent), French (intermediate), Russian (intermediate)

Other Interests

  • Physics Outreach, Cycling, Distance Running.

Research Experience

Postdoctoral Fellow (ASIAA, Taipei, Taiwan): 2013-present

Galaxy clusters: Weak lensing, Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect. I have developed a suite of open-source Python-based tools with which to generate galaxy cluster catalogs using a noSQL (MongoDB database): https://bitbucket.org/czakon/m2c2

Bayesian fitting of straight-lines by modeling non-Gaussoan noise, and including a cosmologically-motivated model (including dark energy, dark matter, large-scale clustering, etc.): https://bitbucket.org/czakon/scaling-relations-for-cosmology.

I have also developed a method by which to characterize the extent to which bright-stars contaminate astronomical CCD data using a nearest-neighbors correlation function obtained from scikit-learn.org: https://bitbucket.org/czakon/hsc-data-analysis.

Astrophysics Graduate Student (Caltech, Pasadena, California) 2008-2013

    Bolocam Sunyaev-Zel’dovich observations. Galaxy cluster mass calibration. IDL pipeline development. Sunil Golwala, Jack Sayers, Adam Mantz, Elena Pierpaoli, Tony Mroczkowski, Keiichi Umetsu, Sandor Molnar, Leonidas Moustakas, and the CLASH collaboration.

    Submillimeter instrumentation, sub-Kelvin cryogenics, microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs), microwave electronics. Sunil Golwala, Jonas Zmuidzinas, Jason Glenn, Jiansong Gao, Ben Mazin, Anastasios Vayonakis, James Schlaerth, Matt Hollister, Seth Siegel, Ran Duan, Jack Sayers, Tom Downes, Phil Maloney, Phil Wilson, and Hien Nguyen

      Optics Graduate Research Assistant : 2005-2008

      • Academic Part Time Research in Optical & Ion Clocks, and DARPA-funded Er-doped fs fiber lasers. JPL Quantum Sciences Group Div 33 Sect 332, Dr. Robert Thompson.
      • Quantum Optics, Ti:Sapphire laser, construction of 852nm diode laser, Pound-Drever-Hall method. Hideo Mabuchi, Joseph Kerckhoff, Michael Armen, Anthony Miller

      Fulbright Fellow, Minsk, Belarus: 2004-2005

      • Institute for Molecular and Atomic Physics. Sergey Gaponenko, Andrey Lutkin

      Research Experience for Undergraduates: 2003

      • Correlated noise suppression in laser systems. Michael Raymer

      Research Experience for Undergraduates: 2002

      • Data analysis for deuterium dissociation experiments measuring the cross-section for Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Werner Tornow

      Publications

      Observations and Analysis

      [A1] Czakon, N.G., Sayers, J., Golwala, S.R., and Mantz, A. “Ysz and Mgas Scaling Relations Using Bolocam Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and Chandra X-Ray Observations." Astrophys. J., 806:18 2015

      [A2] Sayers, J., Czakon, N.G., and Golwala, S.R. “143 GHz Brightness Measurements of Uranus, Neptune, and Other Secondary Calibrators with Bolocam between 2003 and 2010." Astrophys. J., 744:169, 2012.

      [A3] Sayers, J., Czakon, N.G., Bridge, C., Golwala, S.R., Koch, P.M., Lin, K.Y., Molnar, S.M., and Umetsu, K. “Bolocam Observations of Two Unconfirmed Galaxy Cluster Candidates from the Planck Early Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Sample." Astrophys. J. Lett., 749:L15, 2012.

      [A4] Sayers, J., Mroczkowski, T., Czakon, N.G., Golwala, S.R., Mantz, A., Ameglio, S., Downes, T.P., Koch, P.M., Lin, K.Y., Molnar, S.M., Muchovej, S.J.C., Pierpaoli, E., Shitanishi, J.A., Siegel, S., and Umetsu, K. “The Contribution of Radio Galaxy Contamination to Measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Decrement in Massive Galaxy Clusters at 140 GHz with Bolocam." ArXiv e-prints, 2012.

      [A5] Morandi, A., Limousin, M., Sayers, J., Golwala, S.R., Czakon, N.G., Pierpaoli, E., Jullo, E., Richard, J., and Ameglio, S. “X-ray, lensing and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich triaxial analysis of Abell 1835 out to R200." Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 425:2069-2082, 2012.

      [A6] Zemcov, M., Aguirre, J., Bock, J., Bradford, C.M., Czakon, N.G., Glenn, J., Golwala, S.R., Lupu, R., Maloney, P., Mauskopf, P., Million, E., Murphy, E.J., Naylor, B., Nguyen, H., Rosenman, M., Sayers, J., Scott, K.S., and Zmuidzinas, J.  “High Spectral Resolution Measurement of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Null with Z-Spec." Astrophys. J., 749:114, 2012.

      [A7] Umetsu, K., Medezinski, E., Nonino, M., Merten, J., Zitrin, A., Molino, A., Grillo, C., Carrasco, M., Donahue, M., Mahdavi, A., Coe, D., Postman, M., Koekemoer, A., Czakon, N.G., Sayers, J., Mroczkowski, T., Golwala, S., Koch, P.M., Lin, K.Y., Molnar, S.M., Rosati, P., Balestra, I., Mercurio, A., Scodeggio, M., Biviano, A., Anguita, T., Infante, L., Seidel, G., Sendra, I., Jouvel, S., Host, O., Lemze, D., Broadhurst, T., Meneghetti, M., Moustakas, L., Bartelmann, M., Benitez, N., Bouwens, R., Bradley, L., Ford, H., Jim_enez-Teja, Y., Kelson, D., Lahav, O., Melchior, P., Moustakas, J., Ogaz, S., Seitz, S., and Zheng, W. “CLASH: Mass Distribution in and around MACS J1206.2-0847 from a Full Cluster Lensing Analysis." Astrophys. J., 755:56, 2012.

      [A8] Mroczkowski, T., Dicker, S., Sayers, J., Reese, E.D., Mason, B., Czakon, N.G., Romero, C., Young, A., Devlin, M., Golwala, S., Korngut, P., Sarazin, C., Bock, J., Koch, P.M., Lin, K.Y., Molnar, S.M., Pierpaoli, E., Umetsu, K., and Zemcov, M. “A Multi-wavelength Study of the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect in the Triple-merger Cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745 with MUSTANG and Bolocam.”, Astrophysical Journal, 761:47, 2012.

      [A9] Zitrin, A., Rephaeli, Y., Sadeh, S., Medezinski, E., Umetsu, K., Sayers, J., Nonino, M., Morandi, A., Molino, A., Czakon, N.G., and Golwala, S.R. “Cluster-cluster lensing and the case of Abell 383." Mon. Not. R. Astron.Soc., 420:1621-1629, 2012.

      [A10] Tornow, W., Czakon, N.G., Howell, C.R., Hutcheson, A., Kelley, J.H., Litvinenko, V.N., Mikhailov, S.F., Pinayev, I.V., Weisel, G.J., and Witala, H. “Low-energy photodisintegration of the deuteron and Big-Bang nucleosynthesis." Physics Letters B, 574:8-13, 2003.

      [A11] Tornow, W., Czakon, N.G., Howell, C.R., Hutcheson, A., Kelley, J.H., Litvinenko, V.N., Mikhailov, S., Pinayev, I.V., Weisel, G.J., and Witala, H.  “Analyzing Power for the Photodisintegration of the Deuteron Between Egamma = 2.4 and 4.0 MeV." Modern Physics Letters A, 18:282-285, 2003.

      Instrumentation

      [H1] Czakon, N.G., Vayonakis, A., Schlaerth, J., Hollister, M.I., Golwala, S., Day, P.K., Gao, J.S., Glenn, J., Leduc, H., Maloney, P.R., Mazin, B., Noroozian, O., Nguyen, H.T., Sayers, J., Vaillancourt, J.E., and Zmuidzinas, J. “Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) Camera Testing for Submillimeter Astronomy." In B. Young, B. Cabrera, & A. Miller, editor, “AIP Conference Series," vol. 1185 of LTD13, pp. 172-175. 2009.

      [H2] Czakon, N.G., Schlaerth, J.A., Day, P.K., Downes, T.P., Duan, R.P., Gao, J., Glenn, J., Golwala, S.R., Hollister, M.I., Leduc, H.G., Mazin, B.A., Maloney, P.R., Noroozian, O., Nguyen, H.T., Sayers, J., Siegel, S., Vaillancourt, J.E., Vayonakis, A., Wilson, P.R., and Zmuidzinas, J. “Optimization of MKID noise performance via readout technique for astronomical applications." In “SPIE Conference Series," vol. 77410 of SPIE, 77410Q. 2010.

      [H3] Duan, R., Czakon, N., Day, P., Downes, T., Duan, R., Gao, J., Glenn, J., Golwala, S., Hollister, M., LeDuc, H., Mazin, B., Maloney, P., Noroozian, O., Nguyen, H., Sayers, J., Schlaerth, J., Siegel, S., Vaillancourt, J., Vayonakis, A., Wilson, P., and Zmuidzinas, J. “An Open-Source Software-Defined Radio Readout for MKIDs." SPIE Conference Series, 774167. 2010.

      [H4] Golwala, S.R., Bockstiegel, C., Brugger, S., Czakon, N.G, Day, P.K, Downes, T.P., Duan, R., Gao, J., Gill, A.K., Glenn, J., Hollister, M.I., LeDuc, H.G., Maloney, P.R., Mazin, B.A., McHugh, S.G, Miller, D., Noroozian, O., Nguyen, H.T., Sayers, J., Schlaerth, J.A., Siegel, S., Vayonakis, A.K., Wilson, P.R., and Zmuidzinas, J.

      “Status of MUSIC, the Multiwavelength Sub/millimeter Inductance Camera.” SPIE Conference Series, 845205-21. 2012.