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University of FloridaDarkCosmos

Dr. Simon Barke

Research Assistant Scientist

Portrait of Dr. Simon Barke
Office
NEB 465
Lab
NEB 185
From
Germany

Almost made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro

Research projects

Research

Simon's research focuses on the ultra-low-frequency noise of both custom-built and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices, including electronics, electro-optics, and lasers. His expertise extends to the development of flight hardware for space missions and the conceptualization of future mission designs for gravitational wave observatories. A significant aspect of Simon's work involves identifying and mitigating fundamental and technical noise sources that affect both ground-based and space-based gravitational wave observatories. He has a particular interest in the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, where he contributes to advancing technologies and methodologies.

Additionally, Simon is passionate about advocacy, outreach, and education efforts within the gravitational wave detector and Earth gravitational field mapping communities. He actively promotes and communicates the importance and impact of this research through summer schools, public lectures, science shows, and digital artwork.

About

Simon was born in Germany where he studied physics. For a while, he lived in Moshi, Tanzania, and worked at different local schools and universities. Over the last decade, he has had the privilege to be involved in a number of exciting projects. He was a scientific monitor at the LIGO gravitational wave detector in Livingston, Louisiana. He got his PhD for research on low-frequency gravitational wave observatories in space at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Hannover, Germany, with a focus on inter-spacecraft frequency distribution for LISA, the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna by the European Space Agency. He then moved to the University of Florida where he conducted research at the Department of Physics on the detection mechanism for ALPS, a dark matter generator and detector that is under construction at the German Electron Synchrotron DESY (Hamburg, Germany). Currently, Simon is a faculty member at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where he works on the development of a LISA Charge Management device under a NASA contract. He also tried to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, loves "making" things (from 3D prints to custom electronics) and cannot sing (at all).

Publications