Curriculum Vitae

Giovanni De Amici


50/205 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory -- Berkeley, CA 94720

EDUCATION

  • Dottorato di Ricerca (PhD) ; Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Roma, 1987
  • Laurea in Fisica (M.S. degree); full marks and honors, Universita' degli Studi, Milano, 1978


    PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

    MANAGEMENT

  • Experience working as member of a research project team
  • Experience managing and supervising a project team
  • Responsible for logistics of field expeditions to the California White Mountain
  • Research Station and to Antarctica, involving the deployment of personnel and instruments and their operations
  • Supervised the work of electronics engineers and machine shop technicians
  • Trained undergraduate and graduate students, as well as participants in the DOE Teacher Research Associate program
  • Author of several proposals to NASA, NSF, CalSpace
  • Good written and spoken communication capabilities

    RADIO AND MICROWAVE INSTRUMENTS

  • Experience in system design and engineering, assembly, testing and field operation of receivers systems (total power and Dicke-switched) between 0.4 and 33 GHz
  • Experience in measurements of gain, noise temperature, insertion loss, reflection, beam pattern, linearity, saturation, thermal susceptibility of discrete components
  • Experience in measuring and identifying radio frequency interference

    COMPUTERS

  • FORTRAN, IDL and BASIC programming languages, in data analysis, simulation, and display
  • Experience in VMS and Apple MacIntosh environments; some experience in HP and IBM PC environments
  • Frequent user of Excel, Word, Igor, LabVIEW, PowerDraw on the MacIntosh

    OTHER

  • Italian citizen
  • USA permanent resident
  • Fluent in Italian and English; read and understand Spanish
  • Extensive machine shop experience on power tools


    POSITIONS HELD

  • 1983 - present Assistant Research Physicist at Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley with George Smoot
  • 1984 - 1986 Researcher at Istituto di Radioastronomia/CNR, Bologna with Gavril Grueff
  • 1981 - 1983 CNR fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley with George Smoot
  • 1979 - 1981 Post-graduate researcher at Istituto di Fisica Cosmica del CNR, Milano with Giorgio Sironi

    CONCOMITANT POSITIONS

  • 1988 - 1989 Lecturer in Astronomy, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park California.
  • 1987 Reader, Physics Dept, University of California, Berkeley
  • 1987 Teaching Assistant, Physics Dept., University of California, Berkeley
  • 1978-1980 Teacher of Math and Physics in several Junior and Senior High Schools in Italy.


    FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

    1981 fellowship no. 203.2.13 of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
    1982 fellowship no. 203.2.15 of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
    1990 NASA group achievement award as member of the COBE-DMR project team



    RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

  • 1991 - present Galactic Emission Mapping (GEM) project
    A project to measure the spatial and frequency distribution of the Galactic radio emission between 0.4 and 15 GHz. Partecipated and responsible for the management of the project, including:
    supervision of the design and construction of the mount and pointing system for a portable 5.5m parabolic antenna radiotelescope
    supervision of the assembly of the 0.4 and 1.5 GHz total-power receivers
    final testing and debugging of the receivers
    design and construction of the feed antennas
    design and construction of the 5 GHz Dicke receiver
    design of the 10 GHz Dicke system
    supervision of the design of the data acquisition system
    installation and operation of the instrument in remote sites (Owens Valley (CA, USA), Sutamarchan (Colombia), Izana (Spain))
    implementation of changes and improvements to the designs, as suggested by field experience
    first-look analysis of the data in the field and complete follow up analysis in the lab

  • 1989 - 1994 Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) project. A satellite-borne detector to look for irregularities in the spatial distribution of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Responsable for :
    before lanch: verifying the proper operation of the instrument before, during and after integration of the detector in the spacecraft,
    after lanch: daily check of instrument's operation,
    training of NASA personnel in the use of dedicated software, analysis of the data stream for anomalies
    investigation of the instrument performance while in space,
    Partecipated in:
    validation of analysis software final characterization of the instrument's performance
    data analysis to produce maps of early universe

  • 1981 - 1993 Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Spectrum experiment. Experimental investigation to search for evidence of energy-releasing events in the early universe. Responsable for :
    design, construction, testing and operation of a 33 GHz Dicke-switched receiver
    design, construction, testing and operation of a 3.8 GHz total power, direct RF-gain receiver
    Partecipated in:
    construction of successive generations of liquid-helium cooled absolute reference loads
    design, construction, testing and operations of receivers at 1.5, 2, 7.5, 10 and 90 GHz
    planning and implementing the logistics of field operations in California and Antarctica

  • 1984 - 1986 Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) project. A project to obtains milli-arcsecond resolution radio images of galaxies. Responsible for:
    design of the authomatic water vapour monitoring system for the Medicina (Italy) station
    Partecipated in:
    testing of the radio characteristics of the parabola and early observations at the Medicina station
    refurbishing and retrofitting of the 'Croce del Nord' (a Mill's cross) radiotelescope

  • 1978 - 1985 Measurements of the Anisotropy of the CMBR with ground-based 10 GHz receivers. A dual-beam, high resolution, multi-station project. Responsible for:
    design of a calibration scheme using celestial sources
    Partecipated in:
    assembly of the receiver system at Medicina (Italy)
    observations from the Medicina and the Testa Grigia (Italy) stations
    analysis of the data

  • 1984 - 1992 Remote sensing using passive microwave receivers. Responsible for:
    design and testing of microwave receivers at 1.5, 4, 12 and 31 GHz
    field operations to study water content and retention in forested areas and watersheds
    modification of the 4 and 12 GHz receivers to detect overflying aircraft
    investigation into the microwave signature of aircrafts between 4 and 31 GHz

  • 1983 - 1994 Studies of the brightness temperature of the atmospheric emission in the microwave spectrum. Responsible for:
    collecting and reducing the data at 3.8 and 33 GHz from California and Antarctica
    Partecipated in:
    operation and reduction of data from radiometers at 1.5, 2, 10 and 90 GHz from California and Antarctica



    PUBLICATIONS:

    1. Thesis: : "Ricerca di anisotropie nella distribuzione della radiazione fossile a 3K", Universita' degli Studi, Milano, 1978

    2. "Osservazioni a 10.8 GHz della radiazion andfossile a 3K. La stazione di Medicina"; with B. Falconi, P. Inzani, C. Paizis, E. Santambrogio, G. Sironi, P. Calzolari, S. Cortiglioni, N. Mandolesi, andG. Morigi, CNR Rapporto Interno TESRE #90, LFCTR MiRa 80/1

    3. "Cosmic rays and galactic radio noise"; with G. Sironi, in Setti, Spada, and Wolfendale (edts.), Origin of cosmic rays, 215, Proceedings of 94th IUPAP-IAU Symposium, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1980

    4. "Fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background on a 2.3 deg angular scale"; with P. Calzolari, S. Cortiglioni, N. Mandolesi, G. Morigi, B. Falconi, P. Inzani, E. Santambrogio, G. Sironi, R.B. Partridge, and J.E. Solheim, in Proceedings of 17th ICRC, XI, 270, 1981

    5. "Low frequency measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation"; with G. Smoot, S.D. Friedman, C. Witebsky, N. Mandolesi, R.B. Partridge, G. Sironi, L. Danese, and G. De Zotti, Phys. Rev. Lett., 51, 1099, 1983

    6a. "New multi-frequency measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic background" with N. Mandolesi, G. Smoot, S.D. Friedman, C. Witebsky, R.B. Partridge, G. Sironi, L. Danese, and G. De Zotti, in B. Bertolotti, F. De Felice, and A. Pascolini (edts.), Procedings of the 10th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, 865, Padova, 1983
    6b. and in Adv. Space Res., 3, 465, 1984

    7. "Measurement of the cosmic background radiation temperature at 3.0 cm"; with S.D. Friedman, G. Smoot, and C. Witebsky, Phys. Rev. D, 29, 2677, 1984

    8. "Measurements of the cosmic background radiation temperature at 3.3 and 9.1 mm"; with C. Witebsky, S.D. Friedman, and G. Smoot, Phys Rev. D, 29, 2673, 1984

    9. "Low frequency measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation"; with G. Smoot, S.D. Friedman, C. Witebsky, G. Sironi, G. Bonelli, N. Mandolesi, S. Cortiglioni, G. Morigi, R.B. Partridge, L. Danese, and G. De Zotti, Ap. J., 291, L23, 1985

    10. "New 33 GHz measurements of the cosmic background radiation intensity"; with G. Smoot, S.D. Friedman, and C. Witebsky, The Astrophysical Journal, 298, 710, 1985

    11. "New measurements of the cosmic background radiation spectrum"; with G. Smoot, S. Levin, and C. Witebsky, in F. Melchiorri (edt.), The cosmic background radiation and fundamental physics, 27, Proceedings of the Third Roma Meeting on Astrophysics, Societa' Italiana di Fisica, 1985

    12. " A redetermination of the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation from 12 to 0.33 cm."; with R.B. Partridge, G. Sironi, G. Bonelli, L. Danese, G. De Zotti, S.D. Friedman, G. Smoot, C. Witebsky, N. Mandolesi, S. Cortiglioni, G. Morigi, in F. Melchiorri (edt.), The cosmic background radiation and fundamental physics, 7, Proceedings of the Third Roma Meeting on Astrophysics, Societa' Italiana di Fisica, 1985

    13. "Simultaneous measurements of atmospheric emission at 10, 33 and 90 GHz"; with J. Costales, G. Smoot, C. Witebsky, and S.D. Friedman, Radio Science, 21, 47, 1986

    14. "Large scale homogeneity of the universe as measured by the microwave background"; with N. Mandolesi, P. Calzolari, S. Cortiglioni, F. Delpino, G. Sironi, P. Inzani, J.E. Solheim, L. Berger, R.B. Partridge, P.L. Martenis C.H. Sangree, and R.C. Harvey, Nature, 319, 751, 1986

    15. "New measurements of the cosmic background radiation temperature at 3.3 mm wavelength"; with C. Witebsky, G. Smoot, and S.D. Friedman, Ap. J., 310, 145, 1986

    16. "Measurements of the cosmic background radiation spectrum"; with N. Mandolesi, S. Cortiglioni, G. Morigi, G. Sironi, G. Bonelli, L. Danese, G. De Zotti, R.B. Partridge, G. Smoot, S.D. Friedman, C. Witebsky, in G. Setti, and L. Van Hove (edts.), Cosmology, Astronomy and Fundamental Physics 117, Proceeedings of 2nd ESO-CERN Symposium, ESO 1986

    17. "Atmospheric emission variation measurements at 3, 0.9, and 0.33 cm wavelength"; with G. Smoot, S. Levin, and C. Witebsky, Radio Science, 22, 521, 1987

    18. "Long-wavelength measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation spectrum"; with G. Smoot, M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, S. Levin, and C. Witebsky, Ap. J. Lett., 317, L45, 1987

    19. "The temperature of the Cosmic Background Radiation at a frequency of 10 GHz" with A. Kogut, M. Bersanelli, S.D. Friedman, M. Griffith, B. Grossan, S.M. Levin, G.F. Smoot, and C. Witebsky, Ap. J., 325, 1, 1988

    20. "Measurement of the Intensity of the Cosmic Background Radiation at 3.7 GHz"; with G. Smoot, J.C. Aymon, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, S. Levin, and C. Witebsky, Ap. J., 329, 556, 1988

    21. "An analysis of recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation temperature"; with G. Smoot, S.M. Levin, C. Witebsky, and Y. Rephaeli, Ap. J., Ap. J., 331, 653, 1988

    22. "A measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Temperature at 1.410 GHz"; with S.M. Levin, G. Smoot, M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, and C. Witebsky, Ap. J., 334, 14, 1988

    23. "Low-frequency measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation"; with S. M. Levin, M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, G. Smoot, and C. Witebsky, in E. Norman (edt.), Particle astrophysics: forefront experimental issues, 130, 1989 (World Scientific; Singapore)

    24. "Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation temperature at 90 GHz"; with M. Bersanelli, C. Witebsky, M. Bensadoun, A. Kogut, S. M. Levin, and G. Smoot, Ap. J., 339, 632, 1989

    25. "Low-frequency Measurements of the CMB Spectrum"; with A. Kogut, M. Bensadoun, S. Levin, M. Limon, G. Smoot, G.Sironi, M. Bersanelli, and G. Bonelli, in: D.M. Mullan, M.A. Pomeranz, and T. Stanev (edts.) Astrophysics in Antarctica, 71, Proceedings AIP Conference #198, AIP, New York, 1989

    26. "A Measurement of the Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background at a Frequency of 7.5 GHz"; with A. Kogut, M. Bensadoun, S. M. Levin, G.Smoot, and C. Witebsky, Ap. J., 355, 102, 1990

    27. "The Temperature of the Cosmic Background Radiation: Results from the 1987 and 1988 Measurements at 3.8 GHz"; with M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, S. M. Levin, G. Smoot, and C. Witebsky, Ap. J., 359, 219, 1990

    28. "First Results of the COBE Satellite Measurement of the Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation"; with G. Smoot the COBE-DMR collaboration (26 coauthors), Adv. Space Res. 11, 193, 1991

    29. "The Temperature of the Cosmic Background Radiation at 3.8 GHz; Results of a Measurement from the South Pole site"; with M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, S. Levin, M. Limon, and G. Smoot, Ap.J. 381, 341, 1991

    30. "Preliminary results from the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometers: large-angular-scale isotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background"; with G. Smoot and the COBE-DMR collaboration (26 coauthors), Ap. J. Lett., 371, 1, 1991

    31. "Preliminary DMR measurements of the CMB anisotropy"; with G. Smoot and the COBE-DMR collaboration (25 coauthors), in S. Holt et al. (edts) "After the first three minutes", AIP conference proceedings, (AIP, New York), 222, 95, 1991

    32. "A decade of long-wavelenght CMB measurements"; with A. Kogut, M. Bensadoun, M. Limon and G. Smoot, in S. Holt et al. (edts) "After the first three minutes", AIP conference proceedings, (AIP, New York), 222, 62, 1991

    33. "A Liquid-Helium-Cooled Absolute Reference Cold Load for Long-Wavelenght Radiometric Calibration"; with M. Bensadoun, C. Witebsky, G. Smoot, A. Kogut, and S. Levin, Review Sci. Instr., 63, 4377, 1992

    34. "COBE differential microwave radiometers (DMR); calibration techniques"; with C. Bennett and the COBE-DMR collaboration (25 coauthors), Ap. J. 391, 466, 1992

    35. "Structure in the COBE DMR first year maps"; with G. Smoot and the COBE-DMR collaboration (26 coauthors), Ap. J. Lett. 396, 1, 1992

    36. "Preliminary separation of galactic and cosmic microwave emission for the COBE-DMR"; with C. Bennett and the COBE-DMR collaboration (17 coauthors), Ap. J. Lett. 396, 7, 1992

    37. " A measurement of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background at a frequency of 7.5 GHz" with S. Levin, M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, M. Limon, and G. Smoot, Ap. J., 396, 3, 1992

    38. "COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) preliminary systematic error analysis"; with A. Kogut and the COBE-DMR collaboration (26 coauthors), Ap. J., 401, 1, 1992

    39. "Construction technique and performance of a 2 GHz rectangular corrugated horn" with M. Bersanelli, M. Bensadoun, M. Limon, G. Smoot, S. Tanaka, C. Witebsky, and J. Yamada, IEEE Trans., AP-40, 1107, 1992

    40. "COBE differential microwave radiometers (DMR) data processing techniques", with P. Jackson and the COBE-DMR collaboration (10 coauthors), in D.M. Worrall, C. Biemesderfer and J. Barnes (edts.), "Astronomical Data Analysis, Software and Systems I", 382, NOAO, 1992

    41. "Daily quality assurance software for a satellite radiometer system", with P. Keegstra and the COBE-DMR collaboration (11 coauthors),in D.M. Worrall, C. Biemesderfer and J. Barnes (edts), "Astronomical Data Analysis, Software and Systems I", 530, NOAO, 1992

    42. "Measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature at 1.47 GHz" with M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, A. Kogut, S. Levin, M. Limon, G. Smoot, and C. Witebsky , Ap. J. 1993, 409, 1

    43. "A new program to map the absolute temperature of the sky at low frequencies" with G. Smoot, M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, S. Levin, M. Limon and W. Vinje, in G. Chincarini et al. (edts): "Observational Cosmology", ASP Conference Series (ASP, San Francisco) 51, 527, 1993

    44. " Low frequency measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature from the South Pole" with M. Limon, M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, S. Levin, G. Smoot, and W. Vinje, in G. Chincarini et al. (edts): "Observational Cosmology", ASP Conference Series (ASP, San Francisco) 51, 525, 1993

    45. " A measurement of the cosmic microwave background temperature at 2 GHz: instrument description and observation technique" with M. Bersanelli, M. Bensadoun, S. Levin, M. Limon, G. Smoot, and W. Vinje, in G. Chincarini et al. (edts): "Observational Cosmology", ASP Conference Series (ASP, San Francisco) 51, 521, 1993

    46. " An international program to map the absolute brightness of the sky at low frequencies" with M. Bensadoun, G. Dall'Oglio, M. Limon, G. Smoot, S. Torres, T. Villela, and C. Witebsky, submitted to Astrophysics and Space Science, 1993

    47. " Mapping the absolute brightness of the sky at low frequencies" with M. Becerra, M. Bensadoun, M. Limon, G. Smoot, S. Torres, A. Umana, and C. Witebsky, in S. Holt and F. Verter. (edts) "Back to the galaxy", AIP conference proceedings 278, (AIP, New York), 1993, 208

    48. " Modelling galactic microwave emission from 0.4 to 50 GHz" with C. Witebsky, G. Smoot, and J. Aymon, in S. Holt and F. Verter. (edts) "Back to the galaxy", AIP conference proceedings 278, (AIP, New York), 1993, 210

    49. " Low frequency measurements of the cosmic microwave background" with M. Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, G. Bonelli, A. Kogut, S. Levin, M. Limon, G. Sironi, G. Smoot and W. Vinje, in C.W. Akerlof and M.A. Srednicki (edts), Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. (Proceedings Texas/PASCOS 92), 688, 792, 1993

    50. "Dipole anisotropy in the COBE differential microwave radiometers first-year sky maps" with A. Kogut and the COBE-DMR collaboration (18 coauthors), Ap. J. 1993, 419, 1

    51. "Site evaluation and RFI measurements in Colombia for a galactic radio survey" with Torres, S., Smoot, G., Becerra, M., Chaux, E. Gomez, J., and Umana, A.; 1993, Rev. Col. Fis., 25, 23

    52. "A new program to map the absolute temperature of the sky at low frequencies" with Smoot, G., Bensadoun, M, Bersanelli, M., Levin, S., Limon, M., and Vinje, W. 1993, in G. Chincarini et al. (edts): "Observational Cosmology", ASP Conference Series (ASP, San Francisco) 51, 527

    53. "Absolute measurements of the cosmic microwave background at 2 GHz" with M. Bersanelli, M. Bensadoun, S. Levin, M. Limon, G.F. Smoot, and V. Vinje, 1994. Ap. J., 424, 517

    54. "A research program to map the galactic emission at low frequencies" with Torres, S., Bensadoun, M. Bersanelli, M, Dall'Oglio, G., Limon, M., Smoot, G, Sironi, G., Villela, T. and Witebsky, C.; 1994, Astrop. and Space Science, 214, 151

    55. "A new instrument to map the absolute brightness of the sky at low radio frequencies" with Bensadoun, M., Limon, M., Smoot, G., Bersanelli, M.; 1995, Astroph. Lett Comm., 32, 153

    56. "Foreground emission in ground-based absolute measurements of the CMB" with Bersanelli, M., Bensadoun, M., Kogut, A., Levin, S., Limon, M., Maino, D., Smoot, G.F., and Witebsky, C.; 1995, Mem. S.A. It., 66, 92

    57. "The importance of accurate galactic observations at radio-frequency for CMB experiments" with S. Cortiglioni, M.R. Attolini, N. Mandolesi, E. Palazzi, S. Montebugnoli, A. Orfei, and M. Bersanelli; 1995, Mem. Soc. Astr. It., 66, 84

    58. "Measurements of the CMB spectrum at centimeter wavelenghts" with M. Bersanelli, G. Smoot, M. Bensadoun, M. Limon, and S. Levin; 1995, Astr. Lett. and Comm. 32, 7

    59. "Effects of atmospheric emission on ground-based microwave background measurements" with M. Bersanelli, M. Bensadoun, L. Danese, A. Kogut, S. Levin, M. Limon, D. Maino, G. Smoot and C. Witebsky; 1995, Astr. Lett. and Comm. 32, 7