Curriculum Vitae

Brian P. Abbott

Central Park West at 79th Street

New York, NY 10024-5192

Voice: +1-212-496-3578

Fax: +1-212-769-5007

E-mail: abbott at amnh.org

Web: http://brianabbott.net/

Employment

2004—Present American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: Manager, Digital Universe; Hayden Planetarium
2000—2004 American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: Data Analyst; Hayden Planetarium
1999—2000 American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: Project Astronomer, Digital Galaxy Project; Hayden Planetarium
1997—1999 University of Toledo, Toledo, OH: Research Assistant, Department of Physics & Astronomy
1996 Main Line Night School, Radnor, PA: Instructor
1992—1996 Villanova University, Villanova, PA: Research Assistant, Department of Astronomy
1992—1995 Villanova University, Villanova, PA: Teaching Assistant, Department of Astronomy

Education

M.S. Physics, May 1999

University of Toledo, Toledo, OH

Thesis: Ionization Structure and Mass-Loss for Rapidly-Rotating Near Main-Sequence B Stars

Advisor: Jon E. Bjorkman

B.S. Astronomy and Astrophysics, May 1995

Villanova University, Villanova, PA

Teaching Experience

Presenter, Hayden Planetarium: Participant in the monthly programs showcasing the Digital Universe in the planetarium.
Instructor, Envisioning the Virtual Universe, Hayden Planetarium: Co-developed and co-taught a popular Hayden course highlighting how to use the Digital Universe atlas.
Teaching Assistant, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo: Taught physics labs designed for music and art majors.
Teaching Assistant, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Villanova University: Taught astronomy labs for non-science majors and hosted public observing evenings at the observatory.
Instructor, Main Line Night School: Designed and taught two astronomy courses for adults, integrating classroom instruction with night-sky observing.

Research Experience

Research Assistant, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo: Modified radiative transfer codes to explore the 3-D wind structure and composition in rapidly rotating B stars.
Research Assistant, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Villanova University: Light-curve analysis and photometry of binary stars, spectral analysis of variable stars, binary stars, and cataclysmic variable stars using the Villanova University Observatory, remote telescopes on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, the International Ultraviolet Explorer, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Technical Skills

Web Development: Author, Programmer, and Editor of www.haydenplanetarium.org which receives over 2 million hits per month, and brianabbott.net, which receives about 500,000 hits per month.
Programming: Perl, C, PHP, Javascript, MySQL, XHTML, CSS, LaTeX, KML, IDL, Shell
Operating Systems: Mac OS X, Linux, IRIX, Solaris, Windows
Miscellaneous: Google Earth, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe AfterEffects, IRAF

Publications

Digital Universe Guide

Brian Abbott

2006, A 200-page guide to the Digital Universe Atlas

Virtual Universe

Brian Abbott, Carter Emmart, and Ryan Wyatt

Natural History Magazine, April 2004, Volume 113 Number 3, pp.44–49

The Digital Universe Coalition: Building a Prototype NVO E/PO Portal

Mendez, B.; Craig, N.; Haisch, B.; Lindblom, J.; Hanisch, R.; Summers, F.; Abbott, B.

2004, American Astronomical Society Meeting 204, #78.05

Visualizing and Analyzing Massive Astronomical Datasets with Partiview

Abbott, B. P.; Emmart, C. B.; Levy, S.; Liu, C. T.

2004, in P.J. Quinn, and K.M. Gorski (editors), Toward an International Virtual Observatory. ESO Astrophysics Symposia: 57–61. Berlin: Springer

Hayden Planetarium's Digital Universe: The Extragalactic Atlas

Abbott, B. P.; Gawiser, E.; Emmart, C. B.; Wyatt, R. J.

2003, American Astronomical Society Meeting 203, #118.07

Partiview User's Guide

Brian Abbott

2003, A manual for the Partiview software package

An Interactive Viewing System for 3-D Astronomical Data

Emmart, C. B.; Abbott, B. P.; Wyatt, R. J.; Levy, S

2001, American Astronomical Society Meeting 199, #22.10

The Astrophysics Visualization Archive: Toward a Virtual Observatory Node at AMNH/Hayden

Abbott, B. P.; Liu, C. T.; Tyson, N. D.

2001, American Astronomical Society Meeting 199, #10.06

3-D Visualizations of Massive Astronomy Datasets with a Digital Dome

Liu, C. T.; Abbott, B.; Emmart, C.; Mac Low, M.; Shara, M.; Summers, F.; Tyson, N. D.

Virtual Observatories of the Future, ASP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 225. Edited by Robert J. Brunner, S. George Djorgovski, and Alex S. Szalay. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, ISBN: 1-58381-057-9, 2001, p.188

Ionization Structure and Mass Loss for Rapidly-Rotating Near Main-Sequence B Stars

Bjorkman, J. E.; Abbott, B. P.

The Be Phenomenon in Early-Type Stars, IAU Colloquium 175, ASP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 214, edited by Myron A. Smith and Huib F. Henrichs. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, ISBN 1-58381-045-5, 2000, p.632

Ionization Structure and Mass-Loss for Rapidly-Rotating Near Main-Sequence B Stars