Dr. Peter Jenke’s primary research interests are in gamma-ray astrophysics, detection techniques, instrumentation, and data analysis. One of his first priorities after being hired at UAH was to establish a gamma ray instrumentation lab with modern digital analysis tools. He is playing key roles in several funded and proposed missions including a novel CubeSat NSF funded mission developed for TGF science (TRYAD), Explorer class missions designed to maximize the science return from GRBs: Science instrument lead on the proposed MoonBEAM mission and ground support software lead for the proposed StarBurst mission, and science team member for the proposed probe class mission (STROBEX) designed to revolutionize our understanding of the universe in hard X-rays. Dr. Jenke designed and teaches a graduate class on high energy detector development that focuses on X-ray and gamma ray astronomy. He has thirteen years of instrumental development experience. His science expertise includes the study of accreting binary systems, gamma ray bursts, as well as energetic particles in space environments. He also has significant experience in modeling particle and gamma ray interactions and particle transport in materials using GEANT4.

The primary research interests of Dr. Michael Briggs are Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs). He arrived in Huntsville in 1991 soon after the launch of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) as a NASA Compton Gamma Ray Observatory Fellow to pursue his interest in GRBs. With BATSE Dr. Briggs studied GRB spectra and spatial distributions. After the end of the Compton Observatory mission, he helped develop the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), leading the development of the GBM flight software and participating in the integration and testing of the instrument. Dr. Briggs is Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded Terrestrial RaYs Analysis and Detection (TRYAD) mission, which is designed to measure the beam profiles and tilts of TGFs using a pair of CubeSats separated by several hundred kilometers in low Earth orbit. Dr. Briggs is also a co-I of the BurstCube CubeSat project, which is led by NASA/GSFC.

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Jared Fuchs is a PhD candidate at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). His background is in high-energy physics instrumentation and astrophysics, with experience in CubeSats. During his undergraduate degree at UAH, he served as systems engineer for a balloon-borne X-ray active shielding system through the NASA USIP program while also leading design of a gamma-ray detector for a 6U CubeSat and concept study for a hard X-ray polarimeter instrument. As a NASA FINESST recipient, he currently serves as the ABEX Project Manager.

Michael Halvorson has been Chief Engineer for three CubeSat missions and currently publishes on mission planning and program management architectures, spacecraft thermal design, shape memory alloys, and prognostic health management. He received undergraduate degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Auburn University, a master’s in mechanical engineering from Auburn University, and is a Ph.D. student of Aerospace Systems Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville working with the Complex Systems Integration Lab. He has been a NASA Research Fellow since 2018 and is now Chief Engineer for the largest collegiate satellite program in the world, the Alabama Burst Energetics eXplorer.