Aaron R. Parsons (born 1980) is an American astrophysicist who works primarily in the fields of

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation comin ...

instrumentation and experimental

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

Biography

Parsons was born in 1980. He grew up in

Rangely, Colorado Rangely is a Statutory Town in Rio Blanco County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,365 at the 2010 census. Description The town is home to one of two campuses of the Colorado Northwestern Community College. A post office called ...

and graduated simultaneously from high school and from

Colorado Northwestern Community College Colorado Northwestern Community College is a public community college with campuses in Rangely and Craig, Colorado, plus online. The college participates in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association The National Intercollegiate Flying As ...

with an AS degree in 1998. He majored 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 ...

and mathematics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and graduated with a BA in 2002. After working as a development engineer at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab from 2002 to 2004, Parsons entered graduate school at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

, receiving his PhD in 2009 while holding a predoctoral research position at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Parsons returned to UC Berkeley on an

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...

postdoctoral fellowship in 2009. He was hired as an assistant

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in the Astronomy Department and in the

Radio Astronomy Laboratory The Radio Astronomy Lab (RAL) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) within the Astronomy Department at the University of California, Berkeley. It was founded by faculty member Harold Weaver in 1958. Until 2012, RAL maintained a radio astronomy observ ...

at UC Berkeley in 2011.

Research

Parsons is the

Principal Investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

of the

Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization The Donald C. Backer Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) is a radio interferometer funded by the National Science Foundation to detect 21 cm hydrogen (HI) fluctuations occurring when the first galaxies ionized inte ...

(PAPER) array, a radio interferometer designed to detect the first era of star formation, commonly called the

Epoch of Reionization In the fields of Big Bang theory and cosmology, reionization is the process that caused matter in the universe to reionize after the lapse of the " dark ages". Reionization is the second of two major phase transitions of gas in the universe (t ...

, via its effect on hydrogen in the

intergalactic medium Intergalactic may refer to: * "Intergalactic" (song), a song by the Beastie Boys * ''Intergalactic'' (TV series), a 2021 UK science fiction TV series * Intergalactic space * Intergalactic travel, travel between galaxies in science fiction and ...

. He specializes in digital signal processing instrumentation, and was one of the founding members of the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER).

Honors

* Charles Townes Fellow (2008) * NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Fellow (2009) * Mary Elizabeth Uhl Prize (2009) *

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White ...

(2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Aaron R. Living people American cosmologists 21st-century American astronomers University of California, Berkeley faculty 1980 births Harvard College alumni 21st-century American physicists People from Rangely, Colorado University of California, Berkeley alumni