Over the past nearly two decades, along with my   current students,   post-doctoral fellows,   long-term associates and   former students and post-doctoral scholars, I have worked on millisecond pulsars, old neutron stars, young neutron stars, brown dwarfs, soft gamma-ray repeaters, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts and new types of optical transients. I love surfing the electromagnetic spectrum and building new gizmos. I am currently working on the Palomar Transient Factory which is expected to be comissioned by September 2008. My publications can be found via ADS or Astroph. A CV and bibliography can be found above. Information to contact me can be found here .

During 2007-2008, my teaching schedule is as follows: (Fall) visiting IAS, Princeton, (Winter) "Astronomical Techniques" and (Spring) "High Energy Astrophysics". I take keen interest in the academic life of the Astronomy graduate students and was the Option Rep (relinquishing Jan 1, 2006). I have been involved in graduate admissions.

I hold a McArthur Professorhip in Astronomy & Planetary Science. In 2006 I assumed the position of Director of the Caltech Optical Observatories (which include Palomar, the W. M. Keck Observatory partnership and the Thirty Meter Telescope partnership). In 2007, Cornell University conferred on me the title of Andrew D. White Professor-at-large.

I have a life-long interest in interferometry. In November 2003, I assumed the position of Science Director for the Michelson Science Center. I am co-PI (with Mike Shao) on Extra-Solar Planet Interferometric Survey (EPICs), one of the key projects of the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) for extra-solar planets as well as the Interdisciplinary Scientist for SIM. I am PI of PHASES, a key project on the Palomar Testbed Interferometer, and perhaps the best astrometric planet search on this planet.

Over time I have drifted from radio astronomy to optical astronomy. I love using telescopes and am familiar with Arecibo Observatory, the Very Large Array, Parkes Observatory , Palomar Observatory, and Keck Observatory. I serve on the Keck Operations Group.

Along with Dale Frail , and my Caltech colleague Fiona Harrison, I have an active "Cosmic Explosions" program centered around the VLA, Palomar, Keck and several other telescopes all over the world. Harrison and I spearheaed an efforr to roboticize the Palomar 60-inch | telescope . This program is dedicated the study of transient objects particularly in coordination with the SWIFT hard X-ray mission.

An important part of my academic life at Caltech are the Monday lunches . I meet my theory colleagues (usually Phinney, Kaminokowski and Sari; Goldreich, when in town and occasionally, Thorne), theory postdocs and students every Monday at 12 noon. We have a free wheeling discussion on recent results in literature and summaries of recent conferences.

• "1% inspiration + 99% sweat --> achievement" (ref: A. Einstein)
• "Learn one new idea every day". (SRK motto)
• "Given a sufficiently large telescope, a sufficiently idiotic astronomer can always make a discovery. (How to make astronomers feel insecure)