Ron Maddalena

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email: rmaddale

Dr. Ron Maddalena is the Head of GBT Science Operations.  The overall objective of the Observatory Science Operations (OSO) is to provide the research community an easy-to-use, uniform set of services for all the NRAO instruments.  He is also an active member of the support staff which helps observers use the GBT as well as helps the staff develop the hardware, the tools, and the documentation that facilitate research efforts.

Ron received his B.A. (1980) and Ph.D. (1985) from Columbia University and has worked for the observatory in Green Bank ever since.  He was support scientist for the NRAO 140-ft telescope until 1996.  In particular, during that time, he was the project manager and scientist for the  UniPOPS data analysis system. Since 1996 he has been supporting various GBT construction and support efforts.  For example, he led the design efforts for the Holography system that has been used successfully to set the GBT surface.  He was the project manager, designer, and developer of the CLEO software system that is used by staff and observers to interact with all aspects of the GBT hardware.  He was project scientist for commissioning the GBT as well as for other projects such as the various GBT data analysis systems.  He was the first Head of Science Operations for the Green Bank Telescope from 2006-2009.   He works with the RFI group in Green Bank on mitigation.   He continues to develop the meteorological models and algorithms that create the weather forecasts that are  the basis of the daily schedules created by the GBT's Dynamical Scheduling System.

Throughout his career with the NRAO, Ron also has been very active in the various educational and outreach activities conducted in Green Bank.  In 2004 he was the recipient of a NASA-IDEAS grant to develop "Quiet Skies", an RFI detector for use by middle and high school students.

Ron's research interests include molecular clouds, interstellar medium, structure of spiral galaxies, high- redshift molecular emission galaxies, single-dish calibration algorithms, and radio-frequency weather forecasting.