The University of Hawaiʻi is launching a Space Engineering and Instrument Development Center as part of its broader Space Science and Engineering (SSEI) initiative. The new center is a collaboration between the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Engineering, the Institute for Astronomy, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Its mission is three-fold: to support Ground-Based Astronomy engineering research and development needs in Hawaiʻi, to deliver a pre-engineering program in Hilo, and to participate in engineering and astronomy related community engagement activities. The center has faculty based both in Hilo and in Mānoa, with six team members starting in the 2024-2025 academic year.
Academic Pathways
Students based on Hawaiʻi Island will have the opportunity to take up to the first two years worth of engineering courses through the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and transfer those credits to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where they will be able to complete their engineering degree. For more information on enrolling in pre-engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, contact Dr. Marianne Takamiya (takamiya@hawaii.edu). For more information on engineering and pre-engineering courses at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, contact the engineering advising team at engr@eng.hawaii.edu.
Research Opportunities:
Through a variety of assistantships and vertically integrated project opportunities, students have the opportunity to work one-on-one and in teams with engineering faculty conducting leading edge research in a variety of astronomy instrumentation related fields, including detectors, embedded computing, cryogenics, thermal coatings and systems, optics and photonics.
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Faculty
Dr. Branden Allen
Specialist Faculty and Program Lead
Email: branden.allen@hawaii.edu
Phone: (808) 932-2351
Location: Hilo
Office: IfA-Hilo (216)
Dr. Branden Allen is an Astronomer and Planetary Scientist who has spent the bulk of his career at the intersection of detector and telescope development; aerospace and electrical engineering; and the space sciences. His past and present research activities center on the creation of multi-use space-qualified systems and key technologies to enable the observation of energetic astrophysical phenomena and the characterization of nearby bodies within our own Solar System. The ultimate aims of these efforts have been the elucidation of the formation history and evolution of our universe, our own planetary system, and to aid in the search for resources that will help promote and sustain the future expansion of human activities throughout the Solar System in the years ahead.
After completing his Ph.D. (2007) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in high-energy astrophysics at TeV energy scales using ground-based particle detector arrays, he transitioned to the development of pixelated spaceflight X/γ-ray high-Z semiconductor detectors and systems at the Harvard College Observatory (HCO), a part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard-Smithsonian (CfA). There he played a leading role in two successful high-altitude balloon campaigns as well as the conception, design and operation of a soft X-ray imaging spectrometer for the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission for global characterization of the composition of the target near Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu.
Dr. Trevor Shimokusu
Assistant Specialist Faculty
Email: trevor.shimokusu@hawaii.edu
Location: Mānoa
Office: Holmes Hall (202)
Phone: (808) 956-4391
Originally from the island of Hawaiʻi, Dr. Trevor Shimokusu joined the Space Science and Engineering Initiative faculty cohort in the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in September 2024. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in August 2024, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in May 2019. Shimokusu was awarded a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity to fund his doctoral studies on nonlinear thermal devices and systems. His lab’s research interests include phase-change heat transfer on wettability patterned surfaces, two-phase flows in oscillating heat pipes, and thermomagnetic devices for nonlinear thermal control in energy and space applications.
Dr. Aurélia Charrier
Assistant Specialist Faculty
Email: charrier@hawaii.edu
Location: Hilo
Office: IfA-Hilo (134)
Phone: (808) 932-2352
Dr. Aurélia Charrier received her PhD in 2015 from Grenoble-Alpes University – CEA in France in fluid mechanics and heat transfer in cryogenics (4 K range). Her two-year postdoctoral fellowship (French National Space Agency and Ariane Group grant) was on cavitation studies in liquid nitrogen (77 K range). Since 2018, she served an engineer-researcher at CEA Saclay, providing instruction, mentoring students and managing research projects at cryogenic and room temperature. She was the head of the Cryogenic Group of the CEA Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory between 2019 and 2022. From 2018, she mainly worked on helium 3 – helium 4 dilution fridges (0.006 K range) and developed many worldwide collaborations on heat transfer at ultra-low temperatures, primary thermometry, resistance measurement issues below 0.300 K, porous media for dilution challenges and cryogenics for particle physics projects.
Dr. Sébastien Vievard
Assistant Specialist Faculty
Email: vievard@hawaii.edu
Location: Hilo
Office: TBD
Phone: TBD
Dr. Sébastien Vievard will be joining the Space Science and Engineering Initiative in January 2025. His studies were conducted at the Université Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, where he received a M.S. in Space-based System Engineering in 2013 and a PhD in Physics in 2017. His doctoral work was focused on developing focal plane wavefront sensing techniques to cophase segmented optical telescopes. Following his PhD, in 2018, he joined the SCExAO team at the Subaru Telescope, in Hawai`i, as an Exoplanet Instrumentation post-doctoral fellow. His work focuses on developing instrumentation to probe circumstellar environments and search for/characterize exoplanets and/or protoplanets. He specializes in astrophotonics devices, interferometry, spectroscopy and wavefront sensing.
Dr. Chris Hamner
Assistant Specialist Faculty
Email: chris.hamner@hawaii.edu
Location: Hilo
Office: IfA-Hilo
Phone: (808) 932-2331
Dr. Chris Hamner has a background in applied physics, and is part of the Space Science and Engineering Initiative group in Hilo. He was born and educated in the Pacific Northwest where he received his Ph.D from Washington State University studying Bose-Einstein Condensates. Following a decade of industry experience designing laser optics and radio frequency sensors, he has joined the SSEI to support advancements in ground based astronomy at the University of Hawaiʻi.
