Speaker
Colloquium Speaker: Dr. Thomas Schad
National Solar Observatory / Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope
Tom Schad is an Associate Astronomer at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) located on Maui. Tom earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 2007. From there, he moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he completed his PhD at the University of Arizona on polarimetric methods to measure the magnetic field properties of the solar chromosphere and corona. At that time, he worked primarily with the McMath Pierce and Dunn Solar Telescopes. In 2013, Tom moved to Maui to be the instrument scientist for one of the DKIST first light instruments being built by the University of Hawaii, and in 2015, he joined the NSO and DKIST as a scientist focused on DKIST instrumentation, operations, and coronal physics. His recent work has focused on achieving high-resolution and high dynamic range observations of the polarized solar corona with DKIST. When not working on the Sun, he enjoys spending time with his wife Molly and chasing around their three kids.