A match made in heaven: ARRA-funded astronomer follows childhood dream
By Argonne National Laboratory
April 2010
Joseph Bernstein wanted to be an astronomer for as long as he can remember; when he was eight years old, he asked his mother, “If there wasn’t a universe, what would there be?”
When Bernstein was 15, he built his own telescope while taking a class at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. He ground its mirror himself and can view an image of the moon magnified by a factor of 500. He’s carted this three-foot-long blue behemoth to every city he’s ever lived in; it has a prominent place in his current office—to the right of his desk, close to the window.
“It’s a wonderful symbol,” he said. “I love seeing it.”
Bernstein first joined Argonne as an engineering assistant in 2007. He was reclassified as a postdoctoral appointee in early 2008 and was recently hired as a computational postdoctoral fellow.
He is currently trying to gain a better understanding of the origin of the universe through the use of the laboratory’s Blue Gene/P supercomputer.
His job is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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