In Brief …
I grew up in Adelaide, Australia, where a strong sense of community and a love of nature shaped my early years. Fueled by a fascination with solving problems and a deep enjoyment of physics, I pursued my passion for science, earning a PhD in Physics. This journey led me to California for a postdoctoral role in the LIGO experiment, where I designed CO2 compensators for Enhanced LIGO and spent countless late nights commissioning the detector. I later joined Caltech as a Staff Scientist, contributing to the design of the wavefront sensing and compensation system for Advanced LIGO, ultimately playing a part in the historic detection of gravitational waves.
After some well-earned time off biking across Europe, I continued my journey through laser stabilization, thin film analysis, and cryogenic detector design. Today, my research focuses on designing the third-generation cryogenic gravitational wave detectors and advancing metrology techniques for Advanced LIGO. Beyond the lab, I love sharing my work with the public through outreach, sparking excitement for the mysteries of our universe.
If I’ve discovered how to do something, I immediately try to find out how NOT to do it.
Whenever I pick up a new skill, I always try to Google “Top 5 most common mistakes when <insert skill>”. I think there is so much value in learning from other people’s mistakes. It helps to avoid common traps.
A. F. Brooks et al, Point Absorbers in Advanced LIGO, App. Optics, V60 (13) p4047 (2021)
R. X. Adhikari, … A. F. Brooks et al, A cryogenic silicon interferometer for gravitational wave detection, Class. Quantum Grav. 37 165003 (2020)
A. Perreca, A. F. Brooks et al, Analysis and visualization of the output mode-matching requirements for squeezing in Advanced LIGO and future gravitational wave detectors, Phys. Rev. D 101, 102005 (2020)
Cao, A. F. Brooks et al, High dynamic range thermally actuated bimorph mirror for gravitational wave detectors, App. Optics, V59 (9) p2784 (2020)
B. P. Abbott, … A. F. Brooks et al, Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger, Phys. Rev. Lett, 116, 061102 (2016)
A. F. Brooks et al, Overview of Advanced LIGO adaptive optics, App. Optics, V55 (29) p8526 (2016)
