Rosemary Diaz

Optics Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

B.S. Physics (2000)

Diaz leads a team of engineers to design and deliver an instrument that accurately measures distances for use in space applications.
Joined JPL as a summer student hire in the optics section in 2000. She worked part-time throughout graduate school, receiving her master’s degree and doctorate in electrical engineering, with a concentration in photonics and optoelectronics, from UCLA.
For the past decade, she has worked on various projects, including the Space Interferometry Mission, the Terrestrial Planet Finder, research and technology development, and most recently, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory.
Works on optical testbeds, which are experimental optical layouts that are used to help design and develop new technologies for applications that will one day be used in space exploration. She also writes software for data acquisition and analysis, runs computer simulations of sensors that are used to measure relative positions of optics, and designs mechanical hardware that is used to hold custom optical assemblies.
Credits the faculty mentorship she received as a student, including the opportunity to be a student research assistant, and participate in the international Super-Kamiokande neutrino physics study. She traveled to the Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research in Hida, Japan. She says that access to a professional scientific experience while still an undergraduate was “exceptional.”

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