Curriculum Vitæ

Kael Dylan Hanson, Ph.D. (Physics)
Faculté des Sciences
Service de Physique des particules élémentaires
Université Libre de Bruxelles - IIHE
Boulevard du Triomphe, CP-230
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Telephone: +32 2 629 35 82
Fax: +32 2 629 38 16
email: khanson@ulb.ac.be
new webpage: http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~khanson

Professional Appointments

Chargé de cours - Université Libre de Bruxelles
Assistant professor of physics. ULB particle astrophysics group leader.
1/2009 - present
Associate Instrumentation Innovator - Research. University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Collaborating scientist on IceCube project - an NSF-funded, high-energy astrophysical observatory under construction at the geographic South Pole. Participating member of IceCube supernova neutrino analysis group and cascade neutrino analysis group. Project duties:
Data Acquisition Systems Lead
Executive and technical lead of data acquisition group responsible for delivery of mission-critical hardware, firmware, and software from team of over 25 engineers and scientists spanning 5 institutions in USA and Europe.
Detector Operations Coordinator
Principal scientist responsible for detector array at South Pole. Co-investigator on NSF award to operate IceCube facility and provide scientific support infrastructure to collaborating institutions.
6/2005 - 1/2009
Assistant Instrumentation Innovator - Research. University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Manager - In-Ice Devices
Oversaw design, production, and testing of optical sensor hardware for IceCube project. Interacted with project scientists and engineering resources, external industrial vendors, and quality engineering to deliver a robust and manufacturable product. Over 2400 of these sensors are now embedded in the glacial ice 1.5 km to 2.5 km beneath the South Pole surface.
10/2003 - 6/2005
Assistant Researcher. University of Wisconsin - Madison.
  • Established laboratory for evaluation of large-area photomultiplier tubes for IceCube.
  • Developed and implemented IceCube digital optical module test plans.
  • Developed experimental data analysis filter for the AMANDA 2001 data set.
4/2002 - 10/2003
Postdoctoral Researcher. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphaia, PA.
  • Contributing author on IceCube Preliminary Design Document submitted to National Science Foundation during IceCube project approval.
  • Author of Monte Carlo software package to simulate the propagation of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos through Earth's interior.
  • Developer of high performance numerical routines contained in the data analysis software toolkit used by AMANDA and IceCube collaborations.
  • Coordinator of AMANDA detector optical calibration system.
4/2000 - 4/2002
Software Consultant. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philedelphia, PA.
Assisted client in developing MATLAB-based audio signal processing algorithms and an instrument control framework for a study of human aural perception
8/2001 - 11/2001
Software Consultant. Sentec Corporation, Walled Lake, MI.
Provided software development support for SBIR-supported firm pursuing government contracts: this included creation of audio and optical signal processing algorithms and device driver development for data acquisition equipment on Win32 platforms.
8/1993 - 12/1999

Education

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Ph. D., Physics (2000)
Ph. D. Thesis: A measurement of the neutrino-induced muon flux at the MACRO detector.
  • Dissertation work on MACRO detector completed between 1995 and 1999 at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, L'Aquila, Italy.
  • Wrote track reconstruction software for E871 (HyperCP) at Fermi National Acceleratror Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (1999)
  • Developed software to readout CAMAC instrumentation for E683 monitoring system at FNAL (1991).
1991 - 2000
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. B.S., Physics (1991)
1987 - 1991

Teaching

PHYS-F-311 Laboratoire générale approfondie de physique (advanced general physics labs). Nuclear laboratory for 3rd year bachelor students in the physics program. 2/2011 - present
PHYS-F-314 Électronique. I teach the digital half of the electronics course for physics students at the 3rd year undergraduate level. 10/2010 - present
PHYS-F-467 Physique électrofaible et astroparticules (Electro-weak and Astroparticle Physics). A master's level lecture series given in English which covers cosmic ray physics and particle astrophysics. 1/2009 - 5/2009

Invited Talks

Memberships

Member, IEEE, Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Soceity 2012 - present

Committees

IceCube Collaboration Executive Board 2010 - present
University of Wisconsin Graduate School Committee on Academic Staff Issues (GS-CASI). 2007 - 2008
IceCube Project Management (Level 2) Board. 2005 - present
IceCube Trigger Board 2007 - present
IceCube Technical Board 2003 - 2007
Early Career Scientist representative to IceCube Collaboration Board 2002

Electronics and Computing Machines

Software development tools
Adherent of good software design methodology including the collaborative software tools SVN and CVS, issue tracking software (Mantis/Bugzilla), and unit testing frameworks JUnit, PyUnit.
Java
Extensive knowledge of Java (8+ yr) especially in the areas of high-performance Java, concurrent and distributed systems, and numerical/scientific applications.
Python
More than 7 years actively developing libraries and applications with Python and attendant standard library. Very familiar with numerical Python toolkits NumPy and SciPy.
C/C++
I have worked with the C language since 1987 on Unix, Mac OS X, DOS, Win16, Win32, and VMS, and C++ on these same platforms since 1992. I am extremely comfortable with both functional and object-oriented programming models in these languages, including template programming and the Standard Template Library.
Fortran
Fortran-77 on VAX/VMS and HPUX. Very familiar with linear algebra library LAPACK; the CERN program libraries KERNLIB, MATHLIB, and the packages HPLOT/HBOOK, HIGZ, ZEBRA; the high-energy physics Monte Carlo generator packages JETSET and Pythia, and the detector simulation package GEANT (both Fortran GEANT-3 and C++ GEANT-4);
MySQL
Five years' experience with MySQL databases including table design and performance tuning. Proficient with JDBC and MySQLdb toolkits.
Digital logic
Digital logic design proficiency including MCU and and programmable logic devices. High level of proficiency with VHDL synthesis and logic simulation tools (Quartus, Xilinx ISE).
Embedded systems
Experience with Intel 32-bit and 64-bit assembly language; PIC microcontroller assembly; ARM architectures; Altera SOPC systems including NIOS systems and custom programmable logic interfacing with Avalon interface.
Analog Design
Ten years of experience working with analog signal conditioning circuits, including SPICE simulation. PCB layout experience with Cadence/Allegro and Mentor Graphics Expedition PCB.

Languages

LanguageRead / WriteConversation
EnglishNative speaker
FrenchC1C1
ItalianB1B1
RussianB1A2
GermanA2A1