Don Gavel

Research Interests

Hello, I've been at the Lick Observatory (now called UC Observatories) since 2002. Up to my retirement in 2017, I was director of the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics doing research and development of instrumentation for astronomical telescopes and also aiding the Biology department in developing adaptive optics for medical microscopy. Prior to that, I worked as a research engineer in the Lasers division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Since retirement, I've been a part time consultant for the Observatory, working with students and scientists on various new AO technology projects. My research interests over the years have covered a broad range of topics as they've touched on the field of astronomical instrumentation and my own interests: Adaptive Optics, design of Telescopes and Instrumentation, Lasers, EM Wave Optics, Systems and Data Modeling, Real-time Control Software, applied Mathematics, Physics, Astrophysics, Project Management, and Economics. Recently I've become interested in the Earth Futures Group started by Professor (Emerita) Sandra Faber, which studies the long time horizon future of the Earth and mankind.

My Book Chapters

Handbook of Astronomical Instrumentation https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9446

Chapter preprint: Adaptive Optics: Single-Conjugate Natural Guide Star AO
Chapter preprint: Multi-Object Adaptive Optics

My Theory Papers

Gavel, D. T., & Wiberg, D. M. (2003). Toward Strehl-optimizing adaptive optics controllers. Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 4839, pp. 890–901). SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459684
Gavel, D. T. (2003). Suppressing anomalous localized waffle behavior in least-squares wavefront reconstructors. Proceedings of SPIE, 4839, 972-980. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459686
Gavel, D. (2004). Tomography for multiconjugate adaptive optics systems using laser guide stars. In Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 5490). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552402
Gavel, D. (2004). Stability of Closed-loop Tomography for Adaptive Optics. (internal report)
Gavel, D. (2005). Stability of Closed-Loop Tomography Algorithms for Adaptive Optics. OSA Topical Meeting, AThA5. https://doi.org/10.1364/AOPT.2005.AThA5
Morzinski, K. M., Gavel, D. T., Norton, A. P., Dillon, D. R., & Reinig, M. R. (2008). Characterizing MEMS deformable mirrors for open-loop operation: high-resolution measurements of thin-plate behavior. Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 6888, p. 68880S). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.773555
Gavel, D., & Norton, A. (2014). Woofer-tweeter deformable mirror control for closed-loop adaptive optics: theory and practice. Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 9148, p. 91484J). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056937

Instruments I've Worked On

Keck Adaptive Optics

Wizinowich, P., Acton, D. S., Shelton, C., Stomski, P., Gathright, J., Ho, K., Lupton, W., Tsubota, K., Lai, O., Max, C., Brase, J., An, J., Avicola, K., Olivier, S., Gavel, D. T., Macintosh, B., Ghez, A., Larkin, J., (2000). First Light Adaptive Optics Images from the Keck II Telescope: A New Era of High Angular Resolution Imagery. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 112(769), 315-319. https://doi.org/10.1086/316543
Note: Prof. Andrea Ghez was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics based in large part on the data taken with this instrument.

GPI

Macintosh, B., Graham, J. R., Ingraham, P., Konopacky, Q., Marois, C., Perrin, M., Poyneer, L., Bauman, B., Barman, T., Burrows, A. S., Cardwell, A., Chilcote, J., De Rosa, R. J., Dillon, D., Doyon, R., Dunn, J., Erikson, D., Fitzgerald, M. P., Gavel, D., Goodsell, S., Hartung, M., Hibon, P., Kalas, P., Larkin, J., Maire, J., Marchis, F., Marley, M. S., McBride, J., Millar-Blanchaer, M., Morzinski, K., Norton, A., Oppenheimer, B R Palmer, D., Patience, J,. Pueyo, L., Rantakyro, F., Sadakuni, N., Saddlemyer, L., Savransky, D., Serio, A., Soummer, R., Sivaramakrishnan, A., Song, I., Thomas, S., Wallace, J. K., Wiktorowicz, S., Wolff, S., (2014). First light of the Gemini Planet Imager. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(35), 12661-12666. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304215111

ShaneAO

Gavel, D., Kupke, R., Dillon, D., Norton, A., Ratliff, C., Cabak, J., Phillips, A., Rockosi, C., Mcgurk, R., Srinath, S., Peck, M., Lanclos, K., Gates, J., Saylor, M., Ward, J., Pfister, T. (2014). ShaneAO : wide science spectrum adaptive optics system for the Lick Observatory. SPIE Proceedings, 9148, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055256

TMT

Ellerbroek, B., Britton, M., Dekany, R., Gavel, D., Herriot, G., Macintosh, B., & Stoesz, J. (2005). Adaptive optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope. Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 5903). SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.619915
Eikenberry, S., Andersen, D., Guzman, R., Bally, J., Cuevas, S., Fletcher, M., Gardhouse, R., Gavel, D., Gonzalez, A., Gruel, N., Hamann, F., Hamner, S., Julian, R., Julian, J., Koo, D., Lada, E., Leckie, B., Alberto Lopez, J., Pello, R., Perez, J., Rambold, W., Roman, C., Sarajedini, A., Tan, J., Venn, K., Veran, J.-P., Ziegert, J., (2006). IRMOS: The near-InfraRed multi-object spectrograph for the TMT. Proceedings of SPIE (Vol. 6269 III). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672266