Eric Tittley
Flat 6, 42 Sciennes
Edinburgh, Midlothian EH9 1NL
UK
(0131) 667-7961 (in UK)
011-44-131-667-7961 (outside UK)
E-Mail: ert at roe dot ac dot uk

PERSONAL DATA

Born March 23, 1969 in Timmins, Ontario.
Have lived in Timmins, Ville de Québec, Toronto, Ottawa, Dolbeau, Richmond Hill, Oakville, London (Ontario), Baltimore, Edinburgh
Fluent in both written and spoken English.
Capable in written French with a little spoken French (waning fast).

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY

• 1999 University of Western Ontario. Ph.D. in Astronomy. Thesis: "Hierarchical Clustering and Galaxy Cluster Scaling Laws"

• 1994 University of Western Ontario. M.Sc. in Astronomy. Thesis: "The detection of short term temperature variations in stellar photospheres".

• 1992 University of Toronto. B.Sc Specialist in Astronomy/Physics. Undergraduate thesis: "Tomographic separation of the spectra of the Capella binary system".

AWARDS

• 1994-1998 Special University Scholarship, The University of Western Ontario
• 1997 William H. Wehlau Memorial Scholarship, The University of Western Ontario
• 1991 The H.S. Robertson Scholarship, University of Toronto
• 1991 NSERC Undergraduate Scholarship
• 1990 NRC Summer Assistantship

Memberships

• Canadian Astronomical Society
• American Astronomical Society

WORK EXPERIENCE

September 2003 to present
Institute for Astronomy
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
Postdoctoral Research Associate

• Simulations of high redshift Lyman-α forests with emphasis on the propagation of the ionisation fronts.

December 1999 to August 2003
Joint Center for Astrophysics
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Postdoctoral Research Associate

• As Researcher
  • Initiated a programme of numerical simulations of large scale structure, galaxy cluster mergers, and filaments.
  • Reduced and analysed data from the Chandra, ASCA, and ROSAT X-ray satellites.
  • Wrote papers on the topics of baryon fractions in clusters of galaxies, drag in numerical simulations, an X-ray detection of filamentary gas between two galaxy clusters, and an analysis of the merger cluster Abell 3266 using Chandra data.
• As Telescope Operator
  • Managed a 0.8 m telescope from installation through to the day-to-day operation including usage instruction, documentation, and calibration.
  • Provided instruction on the use of the telescope and image analysis software for undergraduate students.
  • Instrumented and hosted a public outreach programme centred on the telescope.
• As System Administrator
  • Engineered and manage a local network of 12 Unix (Solaris, Linux) workstations and 1 Windows-2000 machine.
  • Provide support for faculty laptops (Mac OS X, Windows-XP/2000, Linux)
  • Created and maintain the JCA web pages.
• As Instructor
  • Introductory Physics for Life Sciences.
  • Computational Physics

January 1999 to April 1999
University of Western Ontario
Physics Lab Demonstrator

• Prepared, demonstrated, and marked physics labs for first year students
• Ranked by the students above the average of all other demonstrators in e ach catagory in which I was evaluated

September 1993-1999
University of Western Ontario
Teaching assistant

• demonstrated the use and operation of telescopes to undergraduate students.
• aided and tutored students in astronony.
• marked laboratory assignments.
• hosted public information sessions for outside groups (scout troops, school groups, etc.).

Summer 1993
H.Z.T. Prospecting
Field Assistant, Shiningtree operations.

• cut survey lines for geophysical surveys.
• performed inspection surveys of claims.
• assisted in the construction of a prospecting camp.

June 1991 to December 1992
University of Toronto,
David Dunlap Observatory, Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Under Dr. Karl Kamper.
Research Assistant (September, 1992 to December 1992)
Academic Term Assistant (fall, winter, spring 91-92)
NSERC Undergraduate Scholarship (summer, 1991)

• wrote, revised, and modified computer programmes to assist in the analysis of data (tomographic separation of spectra) using a Sun Sparc workstation.
• Reduced and analyzed spectroscopic data using the IRAF package routines for the purpose of radial velocity measurements.
• Reduced and analyzed CCD frame data using DAOphot II package for the purpose of astrometric measurements.
• Collected spectroscopic data utilizing the DDO 1.88m telescope in conjunction with Echelle, Cassegrain, fiberfed, and time-tagged fiberfed spectrograph modes.

Summer 1992
H.Z.T. Prospecting
Field Assistant, Shiningtree operations.

• conducted geophysical survey using ground magnetometers.
• assisted in an induced polarization geophysical survey.
• assisted in a self-potential geophysical survey.
• reduced survey data.
• surveyed properties using transit theodolite.
• cut survey lines for above programmes.
• staked claims.
• assisted in the construction of a prospecting camp.

Summer 1990
National Research Council,
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Spectroscopy. Ottawa, Ontario.
Summer Assistantship under Dr. A.R.W McKellar.

• wrote, revised, and modified computer programmes to assist in the analysis and presentation of data.
• assisted in the alignment of experiment optical paths.
• assisted in the software and hardware installation of a DEC VAXstation.

Summer 1989
Durham Geological Explorations. Timmins, Ontario.
Field Assistant, Lac St. Jean operations.

• prospected properties for copper-nickel orebodies.
• assisted in the mapping of property geology.
• assisted in conducting geophysical surveys using electromagnetic units. (Horizontal loop E.M. units)
• analyzed and interpreted airborne electromagnetic data.
• reduced magnetometer and electromagnetic data.

Summer 1988
R. Sommerville Geological and Mining Engineering, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Field Assistant, Timmins operations.

• assisted and conducted geophysical surveys using ground magnetometers and
• electromagnetic units. (Proton decay magnetometers, VLF E.M. units)

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

• Hosted enrichment sessions at a variety of science camps.
• Participated in the Let's Talk Science outreach programme.
• Captained a ballhockey team for 4 seasons.
• Co-captained basketball team.

COMPUTER LANGUAGES, SOFTWARE, SKILLS

Languages:

• C: Since 1988. Experience working with numerical methods, parallel programming, cross-language interfaces, and CGI scripts.
• C++: Experience working with numerical methods plus a graduate course in C++/OOP. Experience includes use of X11 windowing libraries.
• Fortran: Since 1989. Extensive experience with numerical methods in the field of astronomy and geophysics. Parallel programming techniques.
• BASIC: Since 1982.
• Numerical languages: Matlab, IDL, Octave. Since 1990.
• Symbolic languages: Maple. Since 1990.

Scripting languages:

• Bourne shell
• C shell
• Perl
• Tcl/Tk
• Python

Markup languages:

• TeX, LaTeX
• HTML
• VRML

Experience includes use of standard Make compilation scripts and debugging using dbx.

Operating Systems:

• Unix (Linux, Solaris, SunOS, Digital)
• DOS
• Windows/Windows95
• VMS

Astronomical data reduction packages:

FTools, Ciao, IRAF, DAOphot II, PC Vista, I-Power's Vision, and a plethora of others including UNIX-based.

Extensive knowledge of internet tools.

INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES

Photography, hiking, cycling, numismatics, palaeontology, geology, archeology.
Auto racing aficionado.
Sports: road hockey, soccer, ultimate, basketball, softball, squash, skiing, curling, volleyball, badminton, canoeing.

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Eric Tittley

Last modified: 060601

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