User:Oneal
From MariachiWiki
Greetings!
My name is Ray H O'Neal, Jr. I am an associate professor of physics and director of the AstroParticle and Cosmic Radiation Detector Research and Development Laboratory (APCR-DRDL) at Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, Florida and a collaborator on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment (AMS). I am also the "adopted" science professor of Ms. Irene Klay, 6th grade science teacher of the Pre - International Baccalaureate (Pre-IB) program at Fairview Middle School. I have also contributed to other cosmic (gamma) ray and space astronomy experiments such as the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). I started collaborating with Helio Takai on MARIACHI in 2005 through the NSF-DOE FaST program at BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY (BNL) and am doing so again in 2006. My interest in high energy cosmic rays stems in part from the possible existence of a high energy gamma ray source just below the center of the galactic anticenter that does not appear to be emissive in the electromagnetic spectrum at energies below 10GeV (10 billion electron volts). A (very) few photons from this candidate source was observed by the Extreme Gamma Ray Energy Telescope (EGRET) experiment which flew on board the Compton Gamma Ray Obervatory (CGRO) in the late 1990's (see [1]).
About Me
I am the son of Ray H. O'Neal, Sr. (deceased) and Simonetta O'Neal, both natives of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Both of my parents, who instilled in me a great respect and excitement for knowledge, taught in the public school system in Chicago. My dad was an "atomic" USAF veteran of the Korean War, worked in the aerospace industry in California for Ling Temco Vought (LTV), drove a Chicago Transit Authority bus and taught history for a short while before moving to other careers in the private and public sectors. My mom taught in the Chicago public schools for 31 years. I am a native of the city of Chicago, Illinois where, after being unglued from TV coverage of manned space exploration efforts between 1964 - 1969, I attended Mary E. McDowell public elementary school, William H. Ray middle school and Kenwood Academy high school. I completed my undergraduate studies (course 8: physics) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massasuchetts under the guidance of S. James Gates, Mary Hope, and Jerome Friedman and my doctoral studies (physics: x-ray astronomy/astrophysics) at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California under the guidance of A.B.C. Walker, Jr.(deceased) on the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA).
I consider my involvement in MARIACHI to be a return to scientific "roots" of sorts for me. My first involvement with cosmic ray physics research (or physics research in general) was in the late 70's/early 1980's when, as a high school student, I had the opportunity to build a coincidence scintillator cosmic ray "telescope" at the FERMI NATIONAL ACCELERATOR Laboratory (FNAL) under the partial supervision of Elliott Treadwell. I continued on beyond the end of the lab's saturday academy program to learn more from Elliott, Sekazi Mtingwa, Chritopher Hill and Mark Fischler (with permission from Leon Lederman who was the lab director at the time) I worked with Elliott again after my freshman year at MIT on studies of the Hydrogen ion source of the beam injector (linac) at Fermilab. Elliott was the first professional physicist I ever met and I believe shares the same desire as Helio to diffuse scientific information and opportunity for participation in scientific discovery to all those interested regardless of their level (high school thru professional scientists). This egalitarian "open source" approach to science is intriguing and when I became aware of MARIACHI I was excited at the possibility of becoming a part of it. MARIACHI can be considered a grass roots revolutionary scientific endeavor.
Join the Cosmic Ray Radio Revolution!
!Viva la revolution!
Other Activities / Interests
Triathlon
I am a nationally ranked triathlete - which just means that I paid for membership in the USAT before completing four sprint triathlons since 2005. Needless to say my ranking number is asymptotically large (rank > > 1). See how I compare to my competitors here.
Aviation
I am pursuing a pivate pilot's license. Since the spiking of fuel prices I have limited my flying to Microsoft Flight Simulator and similar virtual flight training :-(.
Nanotechnolgy / Renewable Energy
I am also prsently serving as the Chief Physicist of Ubiquitous Technologies, Inc., a company in which I was involved in the founding through my research collaboration with Dr. Reginald Parker of the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering. "Ubiq",for short, pursues nanotechnological and biotechnological solutions to the challenges of developing renewable energy technologies.
I am (was?) a user of the Cornell Nanoscience Facility (CNF), part of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN). I am interested in nanoscale studies in order to develop more efficient photoemissive materials for use in high energy / astroparticle detector systems.
Hacking
After all, using commercial radio and TV transmission to do particle astrophysics IS a hack. Attending the HOPE conferences is always fun.
