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Bonny L. Schumaker

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Bonny L. Schumaker
Alma materCalifornia Institute of Technology
Scientific career
InstitutionsJet Propulsion Laboratory
ThesisTheoretical Investigations in Nonlinear Quantum Optics, Theory of Measurement, and Pulsations of General Relativistic Models of Neutron Stars (1985)
Doctoral advisorKip Thorne

Bonny Laura Schumaker (born 1953) is an American physicist and pilot who worked on the LISA Pathfinder. In 2010 she founded the nonprofit "On Wings of Care", a charity which protects animals and environments.[1]

Early life and education

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Schumaker was born and raised in Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan.[2] She wanted to be a vet but was awarded a scholarship to study physics at the California Institute of Technology. She loved mathematics, and continued at the California Institute of Technology for her graduate studies, earning a PhD in 1985.[3] She worked under the supervision of Kip Thorne.[3] Over six papers, her PhD thesis considered theoretical investigations into nonlinear quantum optics.[4] She developed the mathematical theory of torsional oscillations in fully relativistic spherical stellar models and worked on homodyne detection.[4][5] Her work considered two-photon physics using quadrature phase amplitudes, a technique now known as the Caves–Schumaker formalism, which has become a standard mathematical tool in optomechanics, quantum optics and gravitational wave science.[6][7][8] She worked at Caltech as a postdoctoral research fellow for a year, before moving to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1986.[9] In 1988 she was awarded the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award for her contributions to quantum optics.[10][11][12] Schumaker trained as a pilot in 1996 and flew for Continental Airlines.[13] She became a Federal Aviation Administration instructor in the mid nineties. She developed the Precision Optical INTerferometer in space (POINTS) that was proposed for the ASEPS-1 mission.[14][15]

Career

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Schumaker conceptualised the LISA Pathfinder experiment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[16][17][18] She worked in the design and development team of the interferometer.[2][19][20][21][22] By 2008 Schumaker had completed three mock data challenges, demonstrating the ability of the device to deal with the Galactic foreground and achieve accurate recovery of EMRI signals.[23] The pathfinder contains six gold-platinum cube proof masses, and Schumaker predicted that "a nudge equivalent to the air pressure from a human whisper 40 kilometers away would tip a cube out of whack".[24] She worked on a new technique to monitor changes in carbon found in soil; combining field-delineated spatial units, remote sensing, soil residues and simulations models.[25][26] Schumaker retired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2011.[13]

Wings of Care

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Schumaker founded the nonprofit "On Wings of Care" in 2010, which looks to promote the welfare of animals. Schumaker uses her skills as a pilot to assess animal habitats, helping with rescues and rehabilitation. She joined the Board of Directors of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.[27] Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, Schumaker has flown over the Gulf of Mexico for over 600 hours, locating and protecting animals.[28][29] She flies a Cessna called "Bessie".[2] She is often the first responder for pollution incidents.[28] In August 2011 she identified oil globules on the surface of the ocean which had erupted from the broken well of Deepwater Horizon.[2][30] She published the book The Story of Pellie Lou: A Pelican Who Survived the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill in 2015.[31] She has returned to the oil spill with various news organisations, and supported the local community in seeking justice.[32][33][34][35] In 2018 she flew over the coastline of Louisiana to evaluate the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.[36] She has since studied hydrocarbon seepage in the Mississippi Canyon.[37]

References

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  1. ^ On Wings of Care Archived 2019-01-01 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 4 Jan 2019
  2. ^ a b c d "Bonny Schumaker: one woman's journey from rocket scientist to cat pilot". AL.com. 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  3. ^ a b Bonny L. Schumaker at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
  4. ^ a b Schumaker, Bonny Laura (1985). Theoretical Investigations in Nonlinear Quantum Optics, Theory of Measurement, and Pulsations of General Relativistic Models of Neutron Stars (phd thesis). California Institute of Technology.
  5. ^ Schumaker, Bonny L. (1984-05-01). "Noise in homodyne detection" (PDF). Optics Letters. 9 (5): 189–191. Bibcode:1984OptL....9..189S. doi:10.1364/OL.9.000189. ISSN 1539-4794. PMID 19721539.
  6. ^ Caves, Carlton M.; Schumaker, Bonny L. (1985). "New formalism for two-photon quantum optics. I. Quadrature phases and squeezed states". Physical Review A. 31 (5): 3068–3092. Bibcode:1985PhRvA..31.3068C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.31.3068. PMID 9895862.
    Caves, Carlton M.; Schumaker, Bonny L. (1985). "New formalism for two-photon quantum optics. II. Mathematical foundation and compact notation". Physical Review A. 31 (5): 3093–3111. Bibcode:1985PhRvA..31.3093S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.31.3093. PMID 9895863.
  7. ^ Caves, Carlton M. (1988-02-26). "Final Report for Caltech (California Institute of Technology) Contract No. N00014-85-K-0005" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 1, 2022. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  8. ^ Danilishen, Stefan L.; Khalili, Farid Ya. (2012). "Quantum Measurement Theory in Gravitational-Wave Detectors". Living Reviews in Relativity. 15 (1): 5. arXiv:1203.1706. Bibcode:2012LRR....15....5D. doi:10.12942/lrr-2012-5. PMC 5256003. PMID 28179836.
  9. ^ "Caltech Astronomy Graduate Alumni". lco.global. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  10. ^ "Maria Goeppert Mayer Award". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  11. ^ "FermiNews - October 20, 2000". www.fnal.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  12. ^ "American Physical Society Honors Seven Physicists at April Meeting". Physics Today. 49 (9): 123–126. 1988. Bibcode:1988PhT....41i.123.. doi:10.1063/1.2811572.
  13. ^ a b "Altadena's Bonnie Schumaker takes to the sky for animals". altadenablog. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  14. ^ Reasenberg, Robert D.; Babcock, Robert W.; Murison, Marc A.; Noecker, Martin C.; Phillips, James D.; Schumaker, Bonny L.; Ulvestad, James S. (1994-06-01). Breckinridge, James B. (ed.). "POINTS: an astrometric spacecraft with multifarious applications". Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry II. 2200: 2–17. Bibcode:1994SPIE.2200....2R. doi:10.1117/12.177228. S2CID 128813273.
  15. ^ B., Schumaker. Spacecraft and Mission Design for the Precision Optical INTerferometer in Space (POINTS). OCLC 703661163.
  16. ^ Schumaker, Bonny L. (2003). "Disturbance reduction requirements for LISA". Classical and Quantum Gravity. 20 (10): S239–S253. Bibcode:2003CQGra..20S.239S. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/20/10/327. ISSN 0264-9381. S2CID 250822225.
  17. ^ "HEAD - Newsletter No. 90, Nov 2007". cxc.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  18. ^ "FireSat - Global Fire Monitoring Centre" (PDF). gfmc.online. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  19. ^ Astro-GR, LISA's Disturbance Reduction System (2/2) by Bonny Schumaker - GW Course: astro-gr.org, retrieved 2018-12-31
  20. ^ Astro-GR, LISA's Disturbance Reduction System (1/2) by Bonny Schumaker - GW Course: astro-gr.org, retrieved 2018-12-31
  21. ^ "Participants - Cosmos". www.cosmos.esa.int. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  22. ^ "Milestones for LISA AMIGOS* Development" (PDF). labcit.ligo.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  23. ^ "HEAD - Newsletter No. 92, May 2008". head.aas.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  24. ^ Irion, Robert (2002-08-16). "Gravitational Wave Hunters Take Aim at the Sky". Science. 297 (5584): 1113–1115. doi:10.1126/science.297.5584.1113. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 12183608. S2CID 206577351.
  25. ^ "PNNL: Keeping Carbon in Check". www.pnnl.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  26. ^ Brown, David J.; Hunt, E. Raymond; Izaurralde, R. César; Paustian, Keith H.; Rice, Charles W.; Schumaker, Bonny L.; West, Tristram O. (2010). "Soil Organic Carbon Change Monitored Over Large Areas". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 91 (47): 441–442. Bibcode:2010EOSTr..91..441B. doi:10.1029/2010EO470001. ISSN 2324-9250.
  27. ^ https://www.2343ec78a04c6ea9d80806345d31fd78-gdprlock/pg/SeaShepherdUK/about (2010-10-19). "Sea Shepherd's Operation Gulf Rescue Continues Six Months After Spil". Sea Shepherd UK. Retrieved 2018-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  28. ^ a b "Bonny Schumaker, Author at LA Progressive". LA Progressive. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  29. ^ Nienaber, Georgianne (2011-09-09). "Gulf Research Pilot Troubled by Oil Sighting in Macondo Prospect". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  30. ^ Nienaber, Georgianne (2010-07-28). "Flyover at the Macondo Wellhead: Damage Control at "The Source"". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  31. ^ L., Schumaker, Bonny (2012-04-15). The Story of Pellie Lou : a Pelican who survived the Gulf of Mexico oil spill (First printing ed.). New Orleans, LA. ISBN 9780985501105. OCLC 954587484.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ Reveal (2017-11-09), Since the Spill, retrieved 2018-12-31
  33. ^ "The Aftermath". Reveal. 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  34. ^ Castellana, Deb (2010-08-02). "Bonny Schumaker ~ An angel flying 'On Wings of Care'". Planet Ocean News. Archived from the original on 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  35. ^ Smith, Stuart H. (2015-01-13). Crude Justice: How I Fought Big Oil and Won, and What You Should Know About the New Environmental Attack on America. BenBella Books, Inc. ISBN 9781940363448.
  36. ^ AWE NEWS (17 December 2018), Dr. Bonny Schumaker of "On Wings of Care" over Louisiana Coastal Waters, retrieved 2018-12-31
  37. ^ Garcia-Pineda, Oscar; MacDonald, Ian; Silva, Mauricio; Shedd, William; Daneshgar Asl, Samira; Schumaker, Bonny (2016-07-01). "Transience and persistence of natural hydrocarbon seepage in Mississippi Canyon, Gulf of Mexico". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 129: 119–129. Bibcode:2016DSRII.129..119G. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.05.011. ISSN 0967-0645.
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