Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship:
2002 AWARDEE -  Stuart Ian Barnes

Update 2022
I've been out of academia/research for a while now, so unfortunately no recent papers. However, I do see my name still gets attached to some of the Giant Magellan Telescope instrument papers from time to time though... which is nice, e.g, Design of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Prior to last year, I spent the previous 4+ years working for the multi-physics software company COMSOL, as both a developer and product manager. For the past year, I have been working for the company Mynaric (based in Germany, near Munich) on space-based laser communication terminals. Currently, we are in the final hours of preparation for a major design review: hard work, but lots of interesting/complex details. Otherwise, my life is occupied with our two young children (6 and 3) who are also hard work(!) but lots of fun too!!

Following graduation from U. Canterbury, I took a postdoc/research associate position at the University of Texas at Austin. In July last year (2009) I took a position at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney, Australia. After 6 months there I subsequently returned to New Zealand where I now work as an independent optical designer. My work is progressing on several high resolution astronomical spectrograph projects, including two design studies for the Giant Magellan Telescope visible and NIR high resolution spectrographs. In my "spare" time I am also part of a team searching for planets around alpha Centuari. Presently, I am visiting the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics-CfA in Boston, Massachusetts.

Stuart Ian Barnes, a Ph.D. student at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand was presented the Kidger Scholarship Award on 4 June 2002 at the International Optical Design Conference (IODC) Tucson, Arizona by Tina E. Kidger, Proprietor of Kidger Optics Associates and David Williamson, Chairman of the scholarship committee. The award included a cash award, partially supported by Thales Optics Ltd (later to become Qioptiq Ltd), and a laptop computer plus peripherals donated by Hewlett-Packard Laboratories.

It was my sincere pleasure to meet Stuart Barnes, 2002 Kidger Scholar, at the International Optical Design Conference held in Tucson, Arizona early in June 2002, where I was able to present the Kidger Scholarship award to him during the Awards Evening.

Stuart is the kind of person whom everyone would want to know and work with. He has that special gift of knowing what he wants to do and then using opportunities to fulfill his ambitions. He brings to his work a refreshing freedom of spirit, something that Michael Kidger would have admired and encouraged.

At the IODC we had the time to talk about his choice of subject his work and ambitions.

Whilst pursuing a degree in Physics, Stuart became interested in Optical Design, and chose to take his degree at the University of Canterbury, where he knew there was a strong group working in Astronomy. He designed and constructed, in its entirety, a 250mm f/4.5 Newtonian telescope during his undergraduate studies and continued his interest in astronomy when he conducted a photometric study of two interesting variable stars.

His Masters thesis in astronomy was a spectrographic study of the star Beta Pictoris. Stuart observed this star using the Mount John University Observatory's (MJUO) 1m McLellan telescope and echelle spectrograph. As a result of this study in April 1999 he was awarded an MS degree with first class honours.

Stuart said that the opportunity to work towards his PhD on the High Efficiency and Resolution Canterbury University Large Echelle Spectrograph (HERCULES), under the direction of Professor John Hearnshaw, appealed to him because of the interesting combination of design, experiment and observation that the project required. The HERCULES spectrograph is the latest instrument to be designed and built at the University of Canterbury, Department of Physics and Astronomy, for MJUO, which in the past has included the 1m McLellan telescope and a variety of instruments. The HERCULES spectrograph is a fibre-fed instrument, which uses the largest single echelle grating available, a large BK7 prism used in double-pass for cross-dispersion and a folded Schmidt camera. The design of HERCULES was quite advanced when Stuart joined the project, however, he was involved in the final tolerancing of the design as construction of the spectrograph began. The early stages of his work also involved the following:

Testing of optical fibres - This work involved the design of a simple apparatus for measuring the degree to which the focal ratio of an input beam of light is degraded when it exits the fibre. Several different fibres were tested, and the resulting focal ratio degradation factor was used to design the focal reducing micro-lenses that convert the focal ratio of the telescope to a value suitable for the spectrograph.

Design of an exposure meter - Because of the folded nature of the Schmidt camera a small portion of light that would otherwise be lost (due to a hole in the fold-mirror) is able to be used for metering the throughput of the spectrograph. A lens and mirror array was designed which would take this light and pass it to a photomultiplier tube.

Design of fibre-fed optics - In addition to the focal-reducer, a system of optics is necessary so that the calibration lamps illuminate the fibre in a similar fashion to a star.

Dual purpose lens system - A lens system useful for both the guide and acquisition cameras was also designed.

Stuart also mentioned that the University of Canterbury (NZ) accepted an invitation to join the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) project. SALT is an 11 metre telescope which is currently under construction at Sutherland Observatory in South Africa and is expected to be completed in 2004. The univeristy's contribution to the project will be the delivery of a high resolution spectrograph. Over the past year Stuart has become involved in the optical design of the SALT high resolution spectrograph (HRS). The completion of a detailed optical design of SALT HRS and a study of its expected performance, again, under the direction of Professor John Hearnshaw, has proved to be an excellent complement to Stuart's earlier work on HERCULES.

Although the design of SALT HRS is being derived from many aspects of the successful HERCULES design, there are considerable challenges to be overcome. These include:

Size of the telescope - A larger size means that a grating mosaic must be used with the accompanying alignment problems.

Cross-dispersion - The use of prism cross-dispersion is desired because of enhanced efficiency at all wave-lengths. This dictates the use of very large prisms.

Large prisms - Detailed modeling of the homogeneity of the large prisms must be accomplished in order to determine that the unprecedented prism sizes are technically feasible.

Fibre multiplexing - A balance between the efficient use of individual fibres and the desire for multiplexing of fibres must be reached.

Stuart anticipates that the completion of a study of the performance of HERCULES, and finding a solution to the above design problems related to SALT HRS will occupy the remaining duration of his PhD studies. He is extremely satisfied at being one of a team of people who achieved the successful commissioning of the HERCULES spectrograph. The delivery of an optical design for SALT HRS and the assurance that all aspects of its construction are possible would be an added delight.

In the immediate future, apart from completing his PhD, Stuart wishes to further his knowledge of optical design and astronomical instrumentation. He looks forward to furthering this knowledge in other centres of excellence around the world.

I wish him every success and happiness in his future career.