Calvin Barth Netterfield (born 29 April 1968), known as Barth Netterfield, is a Canadian astrophysicist, and a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and the Department of Physics at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

.http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~netterfield/ Barth Netterfield personal home page at U of T He is a leading expert in the development of balloon-borne telescopes.http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Prizes-Prix/Steacie-Steacie/Profiles-Profils_eng.asp?ID=1010 Steacie award profile page at NSERC (for citation a, see paragraph 7) 2007 CAP Herzberg Medal press release These are astrophysical experiments that are lifted into the

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...

high-altitude balloon High-altitude balloons are crewed or uncrewed balloons, usually filled with helium or hydrogen, that are released into the stratosphere, generally attaining between above sea level. In 2002, a balloon named BU60-1 reached a record altitude of . ...

s where they conduct observations that would be hindered by atmospheric interference if done on the ground. Netterfield is primarily known for his work in

observational cosmology Observational cosmology is the study of the structure, the evolution and the origin of the universe through observation, using instruments such as telescopes and cosmic ray detectors. Early observations The science of physical cosmology as it is ...

, specifically in developing instrumentation to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Most notably, he was a key member of the instrument team for

BOOMERANG A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

, the experiment that made one of the first accurate determinations of the age, geometry, and mass-energy content of the universe. More recently, he has delved into the field of

submillimetre astronomy Submillimetre astronomy or submillimeter astronomy (see spelling differences) is the branch of observational astronomy that is conducted at submillimetre wavelengths (i.e., terahertz radiation) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers plac ...

and the physics of

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

, through his involvement with the

BLAST Blast or The Blast may refer to: * Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front Film * ''Blast'' (1997 film) ...

telescope.http://blastexperiment.info/names.php BLAST experiment list of collaborators Netterfield was featured prominently in BLAST!, a documentary film about the 2005 and 2006 flights of BLAST from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

Early life and education

Netterfield grew up in

Surrey, British Columbia Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surr ...

. He developed an interest in astronomy from an early age simply by going outside and looking at the stars.http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/sciences/netterfield_barth.asp "Dr. Netterfield is Having a BLAST", article at the Canadian Space Agency website (paragraph 3) His interest in physics was also fostered by his Grade 10 mathematics teacher, who encouraged him to read about relativity. Netterfield graduated high school from

Queen Elizabeth Secondary School Queen Elizabeth Secondary is a public high school in Surrey, British Columbia part of School District 36 Surrey. The school is named after Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who first visited Canada in 1939. It was ranked 248 of 516 according to ...

, Surrey, British Columbia, in 1986. Netterfield eventually moved to Minnesota where he earned a B.S. degree in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

from Bethel College. He went on to do his Ph.D. in physics at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

under the supervision of

Lyman Page Lyman Alexander Page, Jr. (born September 24, 1957) is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He is an expert in observational cosmology and one of the original co-investigators for the W ...

.http://catalog.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBRecID=935258&v2=1&SEQ=20120608010305&PID=dolscMJPPoyG4n8ulo4iefEL1 Doctoral thesis at Princeton University Library He completed his thesis in 1995 on the measurement of the degree-scale

anisotropy Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physic ...

of the CMB with the ground-based experiment

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. He then became a Millikan Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

until 1999, when he was granted a faculty position at the University of Toronto.

Current Research

Professor Netterfield is the head of the Balloon Astrophysics or "BALLAST" research group at the University of Toronto. Along with his students, and in collaboration with research groups from other institutions worldwide, he is currently working on the design, assembly, and testing of three balloon-borne telescopes. The first, BLAST-Pol, is the BLAST telescope with added sensitivity to polarization, which enables it to observe

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

s in star formation regions. BLAST-Pol flew from Antarctica in December 2010 and is scheduled to do so again in December 2012. He is also working on

Spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

, a balloon-borne CMB polarization experiment that is designed to detect the imprint on the CMB of primordial

gravitational waves Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that Wave propagation, propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliv ...

that are predicted to have been produced by

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...

in the very early universe. His third active project, the

Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a highly stabilized, high-resolution telescope that operates in the stratosphere via NASA's superpressure balloon (SPB) system. At 40 km altitude above sea level, the Gridiron fo ...

, is a wide-field, diffraction-limited, near-infrared to near-ultraviolet telescope capable of imaging resolution and quality at a level that rivals the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

. As one of the first astronomical imagers of its kind intended for the stratosphere, SuperBIT serves a prototype instrument for a more ambitious balloon-borne

optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

wide-field imaging telescope (under the project name GigaBIT).

Other interests

Netterfield is an avid

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

enthusiast and computer programmer. He is the original developer of kst, an open-source, real-time data plotting program that he works on while riding the TTC.

Awards

* 2008 NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship * 2007 Canadian Association of Physicists Herzberg Medal * 2001 Sloan Foundation Fellowshiphttp://www.cifar.ca/barth-netterfield CIFAR profile page

References

External links

Personal Home Page

Ideacity Talk
*
BLAST Experiment Page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Netterfield, Barth 1968 births Living people 21st-century Canadian astronomers Canadian astrophysicists Academic staff of the University of Toronto Bethel University (Minnesota) alumni Princeton University alumni People from Surrey, British Columbia