Neil O'Mahony                            Curriculum Vitae

Apartado 368, Santa Cruz de la Palma,
38700 Tenerife, Spain 

Telelphones +34 922428651, +34 661760085
Emails nom[at]ing.iac.es, neilom@tiscali.es
URL www.ing.iac.es/~nom/

Summary of career aims
Technician/operator with 10 years' experience seeks position as research assistant or technical author, preferably in Spain with salary range from € 25000, but is willing to relocate.

Education
The Queen's University of Belfast, MSc in Opto-Electronics and Optical Information processing, Dec '92
National University of Ireland (Dublin), BSc in Experimental Physics, Jun 1991.

Relevant Experience
I have worked since graduation (MSc) in 1992 at a major international astronomical observatory in a technical and scientific support (laboratory) role, using both English and Spanish languages on the job.

During this time I have led and collaborated in research and technical projects in Environmental thermal and turbulence monitoring, Meteorological and Atmospheric turbulence data analysis.

Recently I took on the role of assistant project scientist in the commissioning of an automatic monitor of atmospheric optical turbulence and was responsible for data quality and calibration.

Skills offered
Operation and troubleshooting on scientific optical instruments (mostly custom made, e.g. Adaptive Optics, Spectrographs, low noise CCD cameras). Research skills in atmospheric turbulence monitoring and analysis.

Fluent in Spanish to an advanced level with ability in technical language.

Literacy in unix, linux, and MS platforms, fortran, C, HTML, Sql, etc. Web authoring skills. Experience in CCD image processing and analysis, statistical data analysis.

Professional skills in operation and primary fault response in a wide variety of systems related to modern telescopes: real time computing, analog-digital control, computer networks, mechanical-optical systems, etc.

Ability to work in a close-knit team environment, where flexibility and communication are critical.

Skills in cutomer support, addressing and resolving scientific and technical problems under significant pressure of time.

Skills in the application of judgement, based on knowledge acquired in education and on the job. My role has been one of significant responsibility for safety of customers and of electro-mechanical, optical and scientific equipment.

Additional Qualifications
Spanish language: Diploma Superior en Español (2003) accredited by the Spanish Department of Education and Culture. This corresponds to the highest level (5th, Maestría) in the European ALTE grading. See http://www.alte.org/members/spanish/dse.cfm

Course on Adaptive Optics, Imperial College, London, May 1997.

Conferences/Articles
Presentation at "IAU Workshop on Astronomical Site Qualilty", Marrakech, 2000.
Article (2nd author) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astr. Soc., 1999, "The Seeing at the WHT".
Conference Proceedings (2nd author) in New Astronomy Reviews, Vol 42, 1998.
Poster Presentation at 23rd IAU Symposium, Tokyo, 1997.
Student Presentation to VII Canary Islands Winter School, "Instruments for Large Telescopes", 1995.
MSc project Article in Physica Scripta 49, 675 (1994)