Education

• Born: Sept. 25, 1949, Hackensack, New Jersey
• 1971 BS in physics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
• 1980 PhD in nuclear physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

• 1972-1980, Graduate research assistant at University of Wisconsin, Nuclear Physics Department Major interest was in polarized deuteron induced reactions on targets with non-zero spin. Major professor was Dr. Paul A. Quin.
• May 1980 - Dec. 1982*, Research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, Cambridge, MA. Working on experimental tests of fundamental theories of gravitation in the Solar System, analytic and numerical modeling, ephemeris development, Mars rotation, solar plasma and asteroid masses.
• Dec. 1982 - May 1996, Physicist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA. Working on development of advanced spaceborne optical interferometers: laboratory tests of holographic optical elements, design of custom digital electronics for data acquisition, analytic and numerical modeling, mission planning and simulations, and 3-D CAD conceptual spacecraft design and rendering. Computer experience with DOS/Windows, OS/2, Unix, and OS-9 real-time; C and Fortran programming; PC "software troubleshooter." Supervisor was Dr. Robert D. Reasenberg.
• May 1996 - Present, PC and Networking Systems Manager at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA. 50% PC support, 50% networking support. Supervisor is Tom Regan.
• 1985 - Present, Independent author and distributor of a shareware disk cataloging program for MS-DOS PC's.

*In December, 1982, the head of my research group, Prof. Irwin Shapiro, left MIT to become director of the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), bringing with him the NASA contracts which were funding my work. I also left MIT at that time, accepting a position with the Smithsonian at CfA performing substantially the same duties under the same supervisor.

Professional Society Memberships

• American Physical Society
• Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society
• Association of Shareware Professionals

1. R.W. Babcock and P.A. Quin, "l and j Mixing in 25Mg(d,p)26Mg," Proc. of the Fourth Int. Symp. on Polarization Phenomena in Nuclear Reactions, ed. by W. Gruebler and V. Konig, 669 (Birkhauser Verlag, Basel and Stuttgart, 1976).
2. P.A. Quin, J.A. Thomson and R.W. Babcock, "The 21Ne(d,p)22Ne Reaction to the J = 2+, 4.46 MeV Level in 22Ne," Phys. Lett., 60B, 448 (1976).
3. R.W. Babcock, "Investigation of (d,p), (d,d) and (d,t) reactions on the odd-A targets 21Ne and 25Mg with a polarized beam," (Ph.D. thesis, available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1980).
4. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, and I.I. Shapiro, "The Light Deflection Experiment from an Astrometric Satellite," presented at the Symposium on Astronomical and Space Experiments of the 11th International Meeting on General Relativity and Gravitation, Stockholm, Sweden, 6-12 July 1986.
5. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, and I.I. Shapiro, "POINTS, A Space-based Astrometric Interferometer for Testing General Relativity and Other Astrophysical Studies." Presented at the Workshop on Space Experiments during the International Symposium on Experimental Gravitational Physics, Guangzhou, PR China, 3-7 August 1987.
6. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, and I.I. Shapiro, "Testing General Relativity with POINTS, A Space-based Astrometric Optical Interferometer," in The Proceedings of International Symposium on Experimental Gravitational Physics, (Guangzhou, PR China, 3-8 August 1987), P.F. Michelson, Hu En-ke, and G. Pizzella, eds. World Scientific Publishing: Singapore, pp. 3-13, 1988.
7. I.I. Shapiro, R.D. Reasenberg, J.F. Chandler, R.W. Babcock, "Measurement of the de Sitter precession of the Moon: A Relativistic Three-Body Effect," Phys. Rev. Lett., 61, 2643-2646 (1988).
8. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, M.V. Gorenstein, J.P. Huchra, M.R. Pearlman, I.I. Shapiro, R.S. Taylor, P. Bender, A. Buffington, B. Carney, J.A. Hughes, K.J. Johnston, B.F. Jones, and L.E. Matson, "Microarcsecond Optical Astrometry: An Instrument and Its Astrophysical Applications," Astron. J., 96, 1731-1745 (1988).
9. R. W. Babcock, H. W. Marshall, R. D. Reasenberg, and S. Reasenberg, "Full Aperture Metrology for High Precision Astrometry," in The Topical Meeting on Space Optics for Astrophysics and Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing, (Falmouth, MA, 27-29 September 1988), 1988 Technical Digest Series, Vol. 10, pp. 25-27, Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1988.
10. J.F. Chandler, R.W. Babcock, and R.D. Reasenberg, "POINTS: A Stringent Test of General Relativity," Topical Meeting on Space Optics for Astrophysics and Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing, 1988 Technical Digest Series, Vol. 10 (Falmouth, MA, 27-29 September 1988), pp. 19-21, Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1988.
11. J.D. Phillips, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, and R.D. Reasenberg, "Tracing the Galactic Mass Distribution with Microarcsecond Astrometry," Presented at the Workshop on Particle Astrophysics, (Berkeley, CA, 8-10 December 1988). Published as Proceedings of the Workshop on Particle Astrophysics: Forefront Experimental Issues, Eric Norman, ed. World Scientific, Singapore, August, 1989.
12. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.C. Noecker, and J.D. Phillips, "Space- based astrometric optical interferometry with POINTS," in The Proceedings of the ESA Colloquium on Targets for Space-Based Interferometry, European Space Agency, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, 13-16 October 1992, ESA Publications Division, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, ESA-SP-345, pp. 59-69, December 1992.
13. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.C. Noecker, and J.D. Phillips, "POINTS: The Precision Optical INTerferometer in Space," Remote Sensing Reviews (Special Issue Highlighting the Innovative Research Program of NASA/OSSA), Guest Editor: Joseph Alexander, Vol. 8, pp. 69-99, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1993.
14. J.D. Phillips, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, M.C. Noecker, and R.D. Reasenberg, "Precision Optical Interferometer in Space (POINTS)," Program and Abstracts, National Radio Science Meeting, U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), (5-8 January 1993, Boulder, CO), USCN/URSI, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 1993.
15. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.C. Noecker, and J.D. Phillips, "POINTS: The First Small Step," in The Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 1947 on Spaceborne Interferometry, (Orlando, FL, April 14-16, 1993), Vol. 1947, p. 12, 1993.
16. M.C. Noecker, J.D. Phillips, R.W. Babcock, R.D. Reasenberg, "Internal laser metrology for POINTS," in The Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 1947 on Spaceborne Interferometry, (Orlando, FL, April 14-16, 1993), Vol. 1947, p. 174, 1993.
17. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, J.D. Phillips, K. Johnston, and R. Simon, "Newcomb, a POINTS precursor mission with scientific capacity," in The Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 1947 on Spaceborne Interferometry, (Orlando, FL, April 14-16, 1993), Vol. 1947, p. 272, 1993.
18. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.A. Murison, M.C. Noecker, J.D. Phillips, B.L. Schumaker, and J.S. Ulvestad, "POINTS: an astrometric spacecraft with multifarious applications," in The Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 2200 on Space Interferometry, (Kona, HI, USA, 13-18 March 1994), Vol. 2200, p. 2, 1994.
19. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, K.J. Johnston, J.D. Phillips, and R.S. Simon, "Newcomb: a scientific interferometry mission at low cost," in The Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 2200 on Space Interferometry, (Kona, HI, USA, 13-18 March 1994), Vol. 2200, p. 18, 1994.
20. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.A. Murison, M.C. Noecker, J.D. Phillips and B.L. Schumaker "POINTS: the instrument and its mission," in the Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 2477 on Spaceborne Interferometry II, (Orlando, FL, April 17-20, 1995), p. 167, 1995.
21. J.D. Phillips, R.W. Babcock, M.A. Murison, R.D. Reasenberg, A.J. Bronowicki, M.H. Gran, C.F. Lillie, W. McKinley and R.J. Zielinski, "Newcomb, a small astrometric interferometer," in the Proceedings of the SPIE Conference # 2477 on Spaceborne Interferometry II, (Orlando, FL, April 17-20, 1995), p. 209, 1995.
22. K.J. Johnston, P.K. Seidelmann, R.D. Reasenberg, R. Babcock, and J.D. Phillips, "Newcomb Astrometric Satellite," in the Proceedings of IAU Symposium 166 on Astronomical and Astrophysical Objectives of Sub-Milliarcsecond Optical Astrometry, (the Hague, the Netherlands, August 15-26, 1994) E. Hog and K.P. Seidelmann, eds., IAU, the Netherlands, pp 331-334, 1995.
23. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.A. Murison, M.C. Noecker, J.D. Phillips, B.L. Schumaker, J.S. Ulvestad, W. McKinley, R.J. Zielinski, and C.F. Lillie, "POINTS: A Small Low-Cost Spaceborne Astrometric Optical Interferometer," poster at the AAS Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 14-18 January, 1996, BAAS, 27(4), 1384, 1996.
24. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, M.A. Murison, M.C. Noecker, J.D. Phillips, B.L Schumaker, J.S. Ulvestad, W. McKinley, R.J. Zielinski, and C.F. Lillie, "POINTS: High Astrometric Capacity at Modest Cost via Focused Design," in the Proceedings of the SPIE Conference #2807 on Space Telescopes and Instruments IV, (Denver, CO, August 4-9 1996), Vol.2807, p. xxx, submitted 1996.
25. R.W. Babcock, J.D. Phillips and R.D. Reasenberg, "An Astrometric Planet Search, POINTS Simulations and Mission Characteristics," in prep. 1996.
26. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, and J.D. Phillips, "POINTS Mission Studies: Lessons for SIM," in Planets Beyond the Solar system and the Next Generation of Space Missions, (Baltimore, MD, 16-18 October 1996), D.R. Soderblom, ed., ASP Conference Series Vol. 119, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, pp 191-205, 1997.

Abstracts

1. R.W. Babcock and P.A. Quin, "Vector Analyzing Power of (d,alpha) Reactions on 58Ni at Ed = 12 MeV," Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 18, 1394 (1973).
2. R.W. Babcock and P.A. Quin, "Vector Analyzing Power of (d,alpha) Reactions on 58Ni at Ed = 12 MeV," Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 19, 478 (1974).
3. P.A. Quin, J.A. Thomson and R.W. Babcock, "Study of Levels in22Ne with the 21Ne(d,p)22Ne Reaction," Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 19, 471 (1974).
4. R.W. Babcock and P.A. Quin, "Mixed l and j Transitions 25Mg(d,p)26Mg at 10 MeV," Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 20, 573 (1975).
5. R.W. Babcock and P.A. Quin, "25Mg(d,d) and (d,t) Vector Analyzing Power Measurements at 12 MeV," Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 21, 555 (1976).
6. L.L. Ames and R.W. Babcock, "Emittance of the Wisconsin Polarized Deuteron Beam," Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 21, 988 (1976).
7. J.F. Chandler, R.W. Babcock, R.D. Reasenberg, and I.I. Shapiro, "New Limit on G-dot," BAAS, 16, 722, 1984. Presented at the AAS/DDA Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, 14-15 June 1984.
8. R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, R.D. Reasenberg, and I.I. Shapiro, "Limits on Metric Parameters beta and gamma," BAAS, 16, 722, 1984. Presented at the AAS/DDA Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, 14-15 June 1984.
9. R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, R.D. Reasenberg, "Prospects for Planetary Detection Using POINTS," BAAS, 17, 705 (1985). Presented at the AAS/DPS Meeting 17, Baltimore, Maryland, 29 October - 1 November 1985.
10. J.F. Chandler, R.W. Babcock, R.D. Reasenberg, and I.I. Shapiro, "The Rotation of Mars," BAAS, 17, 732, 1985. Presented at the AAS/DPS Meeting 17, Baltimore, Maryland, 29 October - 1 November 1985.
11. J.F. Chandler, R.W. Babcock, R.D. Reasenberg, and I.I. Shapiro, "Geodesic Precession of the Earth-Moon System," BAAS, 19, 902, 1988. Presented at the AAS/DDA Meeting 19, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 25-26 July 1988.
12. R.W. Babcock and R.D. Reasenberg, "Response of POINTS to Binary Star Targets," BAAS, 19, 902, 1988. Presented at the AAS/DDA Meeting 19, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 25-26 July 1988.
13. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, and J.F. Chandler, "Prospects for a Deflection Test with Space-Borne Astrometric Optical Interferometry," at XXVI COSPAR Meeting, Espoo, Finland, 18-29 July 1988, R.D. Reasenberg and R.F.C. Vessot, eds.) pp. 71-74, 1989.
14. R.D. Reasenberg, R.W. Babcock, and J.F. Chandler, "POINTS, the Planet Finder, II," BAAS, 21, 972, 1989. Presented at the AAS/DPS Meeting 21, Providence, Rhode Island, 31 October-3 November 1989.
15. R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, and R.D. Reasenberg, "Searching for Planets around Nearby Stars with POINTS," BAAS, 22, 949, 1990. Presented at AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy, Austin, TX April 25-27, 1990.
16. J.F. Chandler, R.W. Babcock, R.D. Reasenberg, and I.I. Shapiro, "Confirmation of the Principle of Equivalence," BAAS, 22, 949, 1990. Presented at AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy, Austin, TX April 25-27, 1990.
17. J.D. Phillips, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, M.C. Noecker, and R.D. Reasenberg, "Precision Optical Interferometer in Space (POINTS)," Program and Abstracts, National Radio Science Meeting, U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), (5-8 January 1993, Boulder, CO), USCN/URSI, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 1993.
18. M.C. Noecker, R.W. Babcock, J.D. Phillips, and R.D. Reasenberg, "Picometer Distance Gauges for POINTS," presented at the Optical Society of America 1992 Annual Meeting, 1992 Technical Digest Series, vol. 23, p. 75, (Albuquerque, NM, 20-25 September 1992).
19. M.C. Noecker, R.W. Babcock, J.F. Chandler, J.D. Phillips, and R.D. Reasenberg, "POINTS: Micro-arcsecond Optical Astrometry in Space," presented at the Optical Society of America 1992 Annual Meeting, 1992 Technical Digest Series, vol. 23, p. 168, (Albuquerque, NM, 20-25 September 1992).
20. M.C. Noecker, R.W. Babcock, J.D. Phillips, and R.D. Reasenberg, "POINTS: Technology for Micro-arcsecond Optical Astrometry," presented at the Optical Society of America 1992 Annual Meeting, 1992 Technical Digest Series, vol. 23, p. 211, (Albuquerque, NM, 20-25 September 1992).
21. R.W. Babcock, J.D. Phillips, and R.D. Reasenberg, "The Newcomb Space-based Astrometric Interferometer," presented at the AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy, Santa Barbara, CA, 12-15 May, 1993, BAAS, 25(3), 1232, 1993.

Talks (excluding ones with published abstracts)

• R.W. Babcock, R.D. Reasenberg and B.L. Schumaker, "Astrometric Planetary System Detection: Search Space and Simulation Results," Internal Symposium on Star and Planet Formation and Related Topics, Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, 7-8 April, 1992.
• J.D. Phillips, R.W. Babcock, M.A. Murison, M.C. Noecker, and R.D. Reasenberg, "Microarcsecond Astrometry and Applications to Star Formation," Third Internal Symposium on Star and Planet Formation and Related Topics, Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, 10-11 May 1994.