Parsons, Ann - Biography

Dr. Ann M. Parsons is currently the Detector Scientist for the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), the primary instrument aboard the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer that is due to launch in December of 2003. The BAT is a large coded-aperture telescope with a very wide field-of-view. The detector plane consists of an array of 32,768 individual CdZnTe (CZT) room temperature semiconductor detectors. As Detector Scientist, Dr. Parsons had the responsibility of purchasing a total of 40,000 of these detectors and verifying that their individual spectral performance met all of the BAT requirements. In the later phases of the BAT development, she has been responsible for the characterization of the spectral performance of the BAT detector plane and providing the ground data analysis software that describes BAT's spectral response.

Dr. Parsons came to Goddard Space Flight Center in June of 1993 under a National Research Council post-doctoral fellowship immediately after receiving her Ph. D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. Having gained extensive experience working with high-energy astrophysics instrumentation as a graduate student, Dr. Parsons worked to develop the room temperature semiconductor detector technology capability at Goddard that ultimately made the Swift mission possible. Dr. Parsons became a civil servant scientist in January 1995. Working closely with the GSFC Solid State Detector Group, Dr. Parsons lead the GSFC effort to study the CZT detector technology for use in high-energy astrophysics applications and became active in the detector technology community. In 1995, she was principal investigator of the PoRTIA instrument that made the very first CZT background measurements at balloon altitudes. Dr. Parsons was very active in the development of the 100 µm pitch strip detectors for the BASIS Midex and Smex proposals. Dr. Parsons also played a major role in the design of the BAT as well as the production of the Swift Midex proposal and Phase A study that lead to the acceptance of the Swift Mission.

In her role as Detector Scientist, Dr. Parsons has enjoyed the opportunity to supervise a team of graduate students in their work to understand the BAT detector's behavior and turn calibration data measured on the ground into an understanding of the BAT response in flight. She is currently thesis advisor to one U. Maryland graduate student and also supervises the work of a team of 5 graduate students from Japan. Dr. Parsons serves on the Swift Education Committee and administers the grant for the Swift Education and Public Outreach Programs lead by Dr. Lynn Cominsky at Sonoma State University. She continues to enjoy public outreach activities such as giving tours of the Swift I&T activity as well as general audience talks on the Swift mission.

Ann M. Parsons received her Ph. D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in May 1993, having earned her B. S. with Highest Honors in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1986. Born in December of 1963, Dr. Parsons has had a keen interest in physics and astronomy since early childhood.
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