I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania where I study experimental astrophysics and cosmology. I build and design telescopes and instrumentation to study the origins of the Universe and the physical processes which shape the structure of our own galaxy.
My PhD research focused on designing and building BLAST-TNG, the Next Generation Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope, led by my advisor Dr. Mark Devlin. BLAST-TNG is a NASA-funded experiment which will fly from a stratospheric balloon from Antarctica, scheduled for a launch in December, 2018. I have led the mechanical design and analysis of the telescope mount and balloon gondola, the cryogenic design of the receiver. My current focus is the integration and characterization of the optical and detector response of the submillimeter camera.
You can follow me as we test BLAST-TNG at the NASA Scientific Ballooning Facility in Palestine, TX and launch the payload from Antarctica on instagram and on my blog!
Nathan P. Lourie 