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2017 Bronze Medal Award

Vissers, Schmidt, Fox, Duff, Beall, Hubmayr, Hilton

Vissers, Schmidt, Fox, Duff, Beall, Hubmayr, Hilton

AWARD CITATION

The group is recognized for the invention, development, and successful deployment at the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) of the world's first multichroic (multiple color) cameras for measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Measurements of the CMB require polarized imaging of the sky at different microwave frequencies (colors) to separate out the true CMB signal from unwanted "foreground" sources such as galactic dust. Replacing the single-color cameras on the ACT with new two-color cameras effectively doubles the ability of the telescope to make measurements of the CMB, greatly reducing the time required to make these very difficult observations critical to the scientific understanding of the universe.

GROUP AWARD

James Beall

Electronics Engineer
Physical Measurement Laboratory

Shannon Duff

Electronics Engineer
Physical Measurement Laboratory

Anna Fox

Electronics Engineer
Physical Measurement Laboratory

Gene Hilton

Physicist
Physical Measurement Laboratory

Johannes Hubmayr

Physicist
Physical Measurement Laboratory

Dan Schmidt

Physicist
Physical Measurement Laboratory

Michael Vissers

Physicist
Physical Measurement Laboratory