Astronomy & Physics educator and researcher ; software developer & Linux sysadmin
Greater Nashville Area
- Past
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- Server Release Manager at Linden Lab
- Blogger at Scienceblogs.com
- Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University
- Postdoctoral Fellow Physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Education
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- California Institute of Technology
- Harvey Mudd College
- Recommended
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3 people have recommended Rob - Connections
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49
connections
- Industry
- Computer Software
- Websites
Rob Knop’s Summary
My calling is to teach college physics at both the introductory and advanced levels, but my broad skills in physics and astronomy, the communication of same, as well as in computer engineering make me qualified for a wide range of jobs in software development, computer operations, scientific computing, and science. A PhD in Physics, working in infrared spectroscopy, I went on to work as a key member of one of the teams that discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. After a 6-year stint as an assistant professor, I went to work for just under two years as a computer engineer (first a member of the operations team, then as the server release manager) for Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life.
To this day I remain active in astronomy through MICA (http://www.mica-vw.org). I give public-outreach astronomy lectures in Second Life every other Saturday morning.
I'm quick with computers, have extensive experience with Linux administration, learn programming languages fast; my current favorite computer language is Python. I've written data analysis and other code in C++, Perl, Python, IDL, and other languages.
Rob Knop’s Specialties:
Observational astronomy; extragalactic astronomy; cosmology; science teaching and public outreach; development of data analysis and other software; linux system administration. Well-versed with Linux, Unix, MySQL, Apache2, Python, C, C++, Perl, LSL. Familiar with Java, PHP, FORTRAN, Bash shell scripting, Javascript.
Rob Knop’s Experience
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Server Release Manager
Linden Lab
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
August 2007 — May 2009 (1 year 10 months)
Just over a year as a member of the DNOC, the part of the operations team responsible for the daily maintenance and upkeep of the production Second Life Environment. I also became active with the release team, and was the primary person deploying server upgrades to the Second Life Grid. For my last several months, I was the server release manager.
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Blogger
Scienceblogs.com
(Computer Software industry)
2007 — 2007 (less than a year)
My onetime blog "Galactic Interactions" was hosted at scienceblogs.com for most of 2007.
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Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Vanderbilt University
(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)
September 2001 — July 2007 (5 years 11 months)
I was an assistant professor at Vanderbilt for six years. I taught a number of classes multiple times, including introductory astronomy for non-majors (including a telescope-based lab), an advanced undergraduate galactic astrophysics course, a graduate nebular astrophysics course, a one-unit astronomy seminar, and an advanced undergraduate general relativity course. My research initially continued the research from my post-doc on supernova cosmology. For this work, I won Vanderbilt's Chancellor's Research Award. Part way through (in an attempt to remake myself into something the funding agencies would recognize for a professor working without professor-level collaborators at the same institution) I switched to working on spectroscopic observations of interacting galaxies. I supervised a few graduate students (although none all the way through to a PhD), and about 10 undergraduate research students, most of whom went on write a thesis and graduate with either honors or high honors in Physics.
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Postdoctoral Fellow Physicist
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Government Agency; Research industry)
October 1996 — July 2001 (4 years 10 months)
A post-doc with the Supernova Cosmology Project. Obtained and analyzed observations of supernova lightcurves and spectra which lead to the discovery that the expansion of our Universe is accelerating, and thus the discovery of Dark Energy. Maintained computers for scientific use. Rewrote the supernova finding software from scratch (twice).
Rob Knop’s Education
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California Institute of Technology
PhD , Physics, Astronomy , 1990 — 1997
Ph.D. thesis title : "Spatially Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy of Seyfert Galaxies"
Thesis Advisor: B. T. Soifer -
Harvey Mudd College
BS , Physics , 1986 — 1990
Graduated with honors in physics, and honors in humanities & social sciences
- Activities and Societies:
- minor in literature, theater, orchestra, unicycle club
Additional Information
Rob Knop’s Websites:
Rob Knop’s Interests:
physics, astronomy, computer programming, music (amateur violinist and violist), acting and directing (with community theater), linux, open source, science fiction, gaming, shakespeare, cats
Rob Knop’s Groups:
American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, Astronomical Society of the Pacific
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Open Source Universe -
Harvey Mudd College Alumni Association -
Astronomy and Space Software -
Interactive Physics -
Astronomy Professionals -
IYA 2009 -
APS Physics
Rob Knop’s Honors:
Co-recepient, Gruber Prize in Cosmology, 2007
Chancellor's Award for Research, Vanderbilt University, 2004
Kodak Fellow, Caltech, 1991-2004
Graduate with Honors in Physics, Harvey Mudd College, 1990
Graduate with Honors in Humanities/Social Sciences, Harvey Mudd College, 1990
Radley Prize in Humanities/Social Sciences, Harvey Mudd College, 1990
Platt Prize for Outstanding Freshman, Harvey Mudd College, 1987
Rob Knop’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
