Science - Relativistic Astrophysics: People: Steve Drasco

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Relativistic Astrophysics: People

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Steve Drasco

Education

A.A., Transfer Studies (Honors), College of the Redwoods (1997)
B.S., Physics (Magna Cum Laude), University of California Irvine (1999)
M.S., Physics, Cornell University (2003)
Ph.D., Physics, Cornell University (2005)

Research Interests

Comparisons of Einstein's theory of gravity to observations and experiments
Sources of gravitational waves, and algorithms for detecting their weak signals in the presence of noise
Massive black holes in the centers of galaxies
Gravitational wave detectors as probes for exotic physics

Projects

LISA - Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
As the first dedicated space-based gravitational wave observatory, LISA will detect waves generated by binaries within our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and by massive black holes in distant galaxies.

Professional Experience

Postdoctoral Associate, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (2005-Present)
Visitor in Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology (2005-Present)
Research Fellow, Laboratoire d'Annecy-le-Vieux de Physique des Particules (1999)
Software Development Consultant, Edison Technology Solutions (1999)
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, California Institute of Technology (1998)
Summer Research Fellow, E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1997)
Summer Intern, Space Telescope Science Institute (1996)
Dean's Research Assistant, College of the Redwoods (1996)

Selected Awards

APS Topical Group in Gravity award for best student presentation, Eastern Gravity Meeting (2004)
NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellowship (2002, 2003, 2004)
Undergraduate Research Award in Physics and Astronomy, UCI (1998-1999)
Herbert H. Chen Award for Outstanding Junior in Physics, UCI (1997-1998)
Institute for Advanced Study, Park City Mathematics Institute, Undergraduate Participant (1997)
Norman E. Ladd Mathematics Scholar, College of the Redwoods (1997)

Selected Publications

S. Drasco, "Strategies for observing extreme mass ratio inspirals," Classical and Quantum Gravity 23, S769 (2006)
S. Drasco and S. A. Hughes, "Gravitational wave snapshots of generic extreme mass ratio inspirals," Phys. Rev. D 73, 24027 (2006)
S. Drasco, É. É. Flanagan, and S. A. Hughes, "Computing inspirals in Kerr in the adiabatic regime. I. The scalar case," Class. Quant. Grav. 22, S801 (2005)
S. A. Hughes, S. Drasco, É. É. Flanagan, and J. Franklin, "Gravitational radiation reaction and inspiral waveforms in the adiabatic limit," Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 221101 (2005)
S. Drasco and S. A. Hughes, "Rotating black hole orbit functionals in the frequency domain," Phys. Rev. D 69, 044015 (2004)
S. Drasco and É. É. Flanagan, "Detection methods for non-Gaussian gravitational wave stochastic backgrounds," Phys. Rev. D 67, 082003 (2003)
S. Drasco and É. É. Flanagan, "Detecting a non-Gaussian stochastic background of gravitational radiation, Proceedings of the Ninth Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity," edited by V.G. Gurzadyan, R.T. Jantzen and R. Ruffini, World Scientific, Singapore, p. 1913 (2002)
S. Drasco, Temperature control system for locking the VIRGO output mode cleaner, internal VIRGO document, http://baba.astro.cornell.edu/ModeCleaner.pdf (1999)
B. Allen, W. Anderson, R. Balasubramanian, K. Blackburn, P. Brady, J. Brau, J. Creighton, T. Creighton, S. Drasco, S. Droz, E. Flanagan, W. Hua, S. Hughes, D. Laurence, A. Ottewill, B. Owen, J. Pullin, J. Romano, and A. Wiseman, GRASP: a data analysis package for gravitational wave detection, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity's Published Software Archive, http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/_ballen/grasp-distribution (1998)

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