Christopher Daniel Fassnacht

Education	Ph.D., Astronomy		1999
	California Institute of Technology
	Thesis title: Determining the Distance Scale with CLASS: Studies of Two New Gravitational Lenses and a Measurement of the Hubble Constant
	Supervisor: Tony Readhead.
	A.B. Magna Cum Laude, Physics and Astronomy	1989
	Harvard University
Employment	Jansky Fellow	1998 - present
	National Radio Astronomy Observatory
	Socorro, NM
Research Experience	Postdoctoral Scholar (Jansky Fellow) National Radio Astronomy Observatory	1998 - present
	Socorro, NM
	* Conducting a multi-epoch monitoring program with the VLA to measure time delays in gravitational lens systems and, thereby, to determine $H_0$.
	* Exploring the evolution of small galaxy groups by observing moderate-redshift groups associated with gravitational lens systems.
	* Measuring redshifts for all known gravitational lens systems with missing lens and/or source redshifts to increase number of lenses suitable for measuring $H_0$.
	* Quantifying the redshift distribution of faint, flat-spectrum radio sources in order to use lens statistics to constrain the cosmological parameters $\Lambda$ and $\Omega_m$.
	* Surveying the milliarcsecond-scale structure of gravitationally lensed radio sources with VLBI.
	* Surveying the radio properties of a sample of high-redshift quasars as part of a multi-wavelength study.
	Research Assistant	1993 -- 1998
	California Institute of Technology Astronomy Department
	* Designed and completed a program which used the gravitational lens B1608+656 to successfully measure $H_0$. This program included conducting an 8-month VLA monitoring program, developing light-curve analysis code to measure the time delays and their uncertainties, and modeling the gravitational potential of the lens.
	* Developed code to objectively select gravitational lens candidates from a survey of radio sources containing observations of more than 10,000 objects.
	* Conducted spectroscopic followup of lens candidates in order to confirm their lensed nature.
	* Surveyed an optically-bright sample of flat-spectrum radio sources in order to determine their redshift distribution.
	Research Assistant	1992 -- 1993
	Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA
	* Analyzed multi-band Hubble Space Telescope images of the cores of nearby elliptical galaxies in order to search for central black holes.
	Undergraduate Research Assistant	Summer 1988
	Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA
	* Compared the X-ray and optical properties of elliptical galaxies by analyzing Einstein Observatory data.
	Undergraduate Research Assistant University of Wisconsin, Madison Space Physics Department	Summer 1987
	* Designed and built components of an X-ray bolometer.
Teaching Experience	Teaching Assistant California Institute of Technology	1994 -- 1995
	Astronomy Department
	* Teaching assistant for undergraduate interstellar medium class and an astronomical instrumentation lab. Supervised a lab section and graded problem sets.
	Science/Math Teacher	1989 -- 1991
	U.S. Peace Corps Gomoa Potsin, Ghana
	* Taught physics and math to Ghanaian secondary school students in the equivalent to grades 7-10. Class sizes ranged between 45 and 80 students. Developed curriculum for each class and prepared students for national exams.
Honors and	Jansky Fellowship, National Radio Astronomy Observatory	1998
Awards	Kingsley Foundation Fellowship, Caltech	1997
	NSF Graduate Fellowship	1993-1996
	Phi Beta Kappa	1988
	Friedman Scholarship for Physics, Harvard	1988
	John Harvard Scholarship	1988
	Harvard College Scholarship	1986, 1987
	Bennett Scholarship, Harvard	1987
	Dunker Scholarship, Harvard	1986
Grants	HST Cycle 7 (4 orbits): NICMOS Observations of the Gravitational Lens 1608+656
	HST Cycles 5--7 (25 orbits): Confirmation and Multi-color Imaging of Gravitational Lenses Discovered in CLASS

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