The RadiaSoft Team
Dan T. Abell
Senior Scientist
Principal Research Scientist Dan T. Abell received his BA in physics from Swarthmore College in 1982 and his PhD from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1995. Dan is an expert on Hamiltonian methods and symplectic maps, especially with application to beam dynamics in particle accelerators. Early in his career, he developed the codes CREMONA and CTRACK to perform map symplectification and fast symplectic tracking. These codes were later used for tracking studies of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Dan helped to design the Spallation Neutron Source, considering the effect of magnet fringe fields on tune spread, the use of octupole magnets to shape the tune footprint, and particle tracking through the injection magnet to explore dumping of stripped electrons. Dan developed a technique for computing generalized gradients for RF cavity fields, used to compute high-order maps. He has worked extensively with the Polymorphic Tracking Code (PTC) and with GPUSPINTRACK, a GPU-accelerated code for fast and accurate tracking and analysis of spin-orbit motion in particle accelerators. Dan has also worked on the development and implementation of symplectic algorithms for the efficient simulation of RF cavity beam loading in the presence of multiple high-order modes. Most recently, he has worked on improvements to the accelerator ray-tracing code Zgoubi, and on the magnet design code Radia. Publications>>
Gerard Andonian
Member of the Board
Gerard Andonian is a physicist working in advanced acceleration concepts and radiation generation. He received his PhD from UCLA, where his thesis work focused on short gain length free-electron laser studies. His current research work is centered on novel wakefield acceleration techniques, including beam-driven dielectric and plasma acceleration, optimization of high-efficiency wakefield generation, and development of cutting-edge beam and radiation diagnostics for high intensity accelerators. As an active member of the community, Gerard has presented his research at workshops and conferences, and has co-authored numerous refereed journal publications. He is well versed in accelerator software and was the first user of RadiaSoft’s Sirepo.
Claudia Behnke
Controller
Claudia Behnke is our controller. She has extensive experience working in accounting and finance, and a thorough understanding of databases and accounting systems. She has worked at Apple Computer in the Financial Services Department where she developed a FileMaker Pro call tracking log used by the US Accounts Receivable group. In Boulder, she implemented multiple Excel templates that automated accounting activities at both Exelis Visual Information Solutions and Zayo Group. She developed FileMaker Pro databases for volunteer organizations (student directories, homeowner directories), and was involved with leading student groups in both Odyssey of the Mind and Math Olympiads. Claudia holds an MBA from Bowling Green State University.
David L. Bruhwiler
CEO
Chairman of the Board
Evan Carlin
Senior Software Developer
Group Leader
Senior Software Developer Evan Carlin received a BS in computer science from the University of Puget Sound. After graduation he worked as a consultant on a variety of software projects ranging from a cloud migration for a Fortune 500 bank to building a web app for a streaming TV Service. He then went to work for Google where he focused on customer support data analysis and new tool development.
Stephen Coleman
Senior Project Scientist
Group Leader
Nathan Cook
Lead Project Scientist
Group Leader
Rebecca “Beck” Cotter
Senior Research and HR Administrator
Rebecca “Beck” Cotter is our research and HR administrator. She brings over 10 years of experience in pre-award management and proposal development from both a small business and government program perspective. She has worked extensively with the DOE, NASA, and the USAF to secure funding for earth science and climate related projects. Beck holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Houston.
Joan Danver
Senior Operations Manager
Jonathan Edelen
President
Jonathan Edelen is an accelerator physicist with a broad range of experience across the field. He specializes in thermionic cathode guns and space-charge effects in low energy electron beams. Jon earned a PhD in accelerator physics from Colorado State University. After completing his PhD, Jon was selected for the prestigious Bardeen Fellowship at Fermilab. While at Fermilab he worked on RF systems for the PIP-II Injector Test, beam dynamics and RF transient effects in the proposed PIP-II accelerator, and thermionic cathode RF guns at the Advanced Photon Source. Currently, Jon is focused on building advanced control algorithms for particle accelerators including solutions involving machine learning. He is also developing improved simulation tools for studying field enhanced thermionic emission in thermionic energy converters. Jonathan has published papers and presented at international conferences on a variety of topics in accelerators. Publications>>
Joshua Einstein-Curtis
Senior Electrical Engineer
Joshua Einstein-Curtis brings a background in cybersecurity and expertise in hardware and system design. He’s previously worked at Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute, Fermilab, XR Trading, and Presco, Inc. His professional achievements include creating custom hardware device designs for particle accelerators, platforms used in trading financial instruments, and designing custom electronics. He has experience working in Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL, and associated development and verification environments.
Josh was awarded an MSEE with a focus on satellite communications and semiconductor optics from Boston University and researched free-electron lasers and computer architecture as a PhD candidate at Colorado State University.
Josh has worked in broadcast systems integration for 15 years, including time spent living in Chongqing, China, where he taught English, as well as working with NBC at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He continues to work in the broadcast industry as a freelance engineer, systems integrator, and director, primarily for live sports.
Ben Gur
Software Developer
Ben Gur received a BS in computer science from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He interned for the Apple News team building notification systems and analytic tools, then joined Radiasoft as a software consultant working on internal software solutions before being brought on as a DevOps Engineer.
Chris Hall
Senior Scientist
Jessie Hanson
Marketing Strategist
Jessie Hanson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Denver, studying biology, professional writing, and data science. She’s worked as a science and tech writer with a background in medical laboratory science and data analysis, and has developed a nation-wide nonprofit organization focused on teaching science communication through comedy to STEM-field professionals. She owns five bicycles and is not looking for any feedback on that choice.
Morgan Henderson
Associate Scientist
Morgan Henderson is an associate research scientist with experience in nanoscale thermal transport and vibrational analysis of solid-state systems. Morgan studied physics and mathematics at the University of Montana, where they graduated with high honors, and received their MS in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. Their graduate research included work on an NSF funded project investigating the manipulation of thermal transport in semiconductor materials via nanoscale engineering, in part using large scale atomistic simulations carried out on high-performance computing clusters. They’ve also done work in the area of exoplanet detection, completed a certificate in engineering management at CU Boulder, and are passionate about STEM education and outreach.
Mike Keilman
Senior Software Developer
Senior Software Developer Mike Keilman received his BS cum laude in physics from Oberlin College and his PhD in nuclear physics at the University of Colorado. His thesis experiment, measurement of pion single charge exchange on Deuterium, ran at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility using the Neutral Meson Spectrometer. He analyzed the data with tools ranging from Fortran to shell scripting to an obscure language called “HTML.” Thus armed, he shifted to software development in the far-flung realms of herbal medicine and telecommunications, most recently hand-crafting a variety of iOS apps. At RadiaSoft, he builds and maintains web UIs based on the Sirepo framework, supporting back-end software for X-ray optics, particle accelerators, and other applications. Publications>>
Gurhar Khalsa
Software Developer
Gurhar Khalsa graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in philosophy and then went on to receive a post baccalaureate degree in computer science from CU Boulder. He interned for Cable Labs where he helped design and implement notification systems for clustering and reporting power outages across the country on the Gridmetrics team. He enjoys doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in his free time.
Matthew Kilpatrick
Associate Scientist
Matthew Kilpatrick is an associate research scientist who has experience in supersymmetry and physics beyond the Standard Model as part of the CMS detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder and graduated with cum laude designation, and received his MS and PhD from Rice University, working on the Phase 1 pixel detector and searching for all-hadronic top squark decays. He was also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara looking for di-Higgs production using deep neural networks for identifying many decay channels.
Paul Moeller
Principal Software Developer
Alex Murokh, PhD, is an accelerator physicist, entrepreneur, and cofounder of RadiaBeam Technologies. Dr. Murokh received his PhD at UCLA in 2002 for his work on the VISA Free Electron Laser. As a postdoc at UCLA, and later as a RadiaBeam research scientist, he worked on the coherent radiation processes, beam diagnostic techniques, and advanced acceleration methods, and novel light sources. Presently, as a chief technical officer at RadiaBeam, Dr. Murokh is responsible for managing the company research division, advancing the product line, and maintaining and enhancing collaborative relationships with the scientific community in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Murokh has served as a member of the RadiaSoft Board of Directors since 2015.
Rob Nagler
CTO
Member of the Board
CTO Rob Nagler has designed and deployed leading-edge distributed systems for almost 40 years. Rob has written extensively about software, including his book on agile development methods, Extreme Perl. Rob started his career in the Distributed Systems Group at Stanford working with Dr. David Cheriton. At Sun Microsystems, he worked with Eric Schmidt in the software products division. He led OLAP development at Olsen & Associates, a pioneer in financial research and analysis. At Tandem Computers High Performance Research Center, Rob implemented a multi-platform, distributed architecture based on CORBA and used for internet traffic routing for mobile phone networks. Rob holds a BS in computer engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and an MS in computer engineering from Stanford University. Publications>>
Boaz Nash
Senior Project Scientist
Research Scientist Boaz Nash is an accelerator physicist with an expertise in synchrotron light sources. Boaz studied math and physics at Reed College, and received his PhD from Stanford University in physics, studying beam dynamics of electron storage rings. He did his first postdoc at Brookhaven National Lab, working on dynamic aperture and Touschek lifetime calculation and optimization for NSLS-II. Starting in 2009, he worked at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, on existing ESRF, and design for the upgrade EBS machine. He is particularly interested in bridging the gap between the electron beam dynamics and experiments in the synchrotron light sources worldwide. Publications>>
Raven O’Rourke
Software Developer
Raven O’Rourke graduated from CU Denver in 2021 with a bachelor’s in computer science, as well as a cybersecurity certificate. As a student, she contributed to research using machine learning to analyze solar energy deployment. As an intern, she worked on iOS app development for a fitness software company. From 2017 to 2018, she served as an AmeriCorps Member in Englewood Schools.
Kathryn Wolfinger
Associate Scientist
Kathryn Wolfinger is an associate scientist with experience in laser wakefield acceleration and plasma channel formation while at CU Boulder, as well as solar wind and ionospheric physics through internships with NASA Goddard. Kathryn received her BS in physics and mathematics from the University of Evansville and her MS in physics from the University of Colorado Boulder.