Miles Lucas
About Me
I was born in Denver and grew up in Eastern Iowa. I completed my undergraduate degree in physics with minors in astronomy and computer science at Iowa State University in 2019. Currently I am a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Astronomy at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. I earned my M.S. in astronomy in 2021. I am currently finishing my Ph.D. project (Winter 24 - Spring 25) and am actively seeking post-doctoral opportunities in high-contrast instrumentation and protoplanetary disk imaging.
Research Interests
High-contrast Imaging
My Ph.D. research revolved around upgrading the visible-light high-contrast polarimeter SCExAO/VAMPIRES. I find the intersection of optics, systems engineering, programming, and data management interesting and fulfilling, and I specialize in polarimetric instrumentation. Polarimetry is a highly effective tool for studying circumstellar disks and I have pioneered new observational techniques for SCExAO which enable simultaneous polarimetric differential imaging with three high-contrast instruments (VAMPIRES, FastPDI, and CHARIS).
Programming
I enjoy using programming to solve astronomical problems and provide tools for other astronomers. I specialize in image processing, data processing pipelines, and Bayesian statistical modeling. I am proficient in Python and Julia, and have contributed many open-source packages in both languages. Check out my code on GitHub.
Personal Interests
Outside of research, I enjoy cooking, baking, photography, astrophotography, climbing, hiking, biking, and drumming. You can see a selection of my favorite photos in my portfolio, which, unfortunately, has not been updated in recent years. I’ve been featured in NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day (APOD) for this star trails photo I took during a summer research internship at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, New Mexico.