TOPS Staff

STAFF

Karen Meech

Tim Slater

Janet Mattei

Mary Kadooka

Mike Mattei

Beverly Wilson

Jana Pittichova

Yan Fernandez

Chija Skala

Gerbs Bauer

George Bendo

Peter Capak

Diane Tokumura

Student Assistants

The TOPS program has been evolving since its inception in 1992, and it has an excellent staff of scientists, teachers, students and other specialists to ensure that we have a fullfilling and well planned program. Below is a brief description of each of the people involved in the program, with links to a more in-depth description.

• Karen Meech - is an associate astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy and is the creator and PI of the program. She directs the program, and is responsible for the overall content of the program.
• Timothy Slater - is the TOPS workshop co-investigator. In addition to collaborating on the overall organization of the workshop, he is responsible for overseeing the program evaluation in collaboration with PREL, the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning center.
  
• Janet Mattei - is the Director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers ( AAVSO, and a collaborator on the project. She works intensively to train teachers in the use of exemplary hands-on activities such as "Hands-On Astronomy".
  
• Mary Kadooka - is a teacher at McKinley High School. She is responsible for organizing and running the pre-workshop activities, and the extensive post-workshop activities. She is the liason between the TOPS program and the Hawaii Department of Education, and will provide assistance for the teacher-participants with grant writing.
  
• Mike Mattei - Mike is an optician, and he will be responsible for running the telescope making (lens grinding and optical testing) activities at the TOPS workshop.
  
• Beverly Wilson - is the new TOPS Conference planner, and she will be responsible for the execution of all the workshop logistics.
  
• Jana Pittichova - is a NATO/NSF postdoctoral fellow from the Slovak Republic, who has an interest in outreach. She will be helping with the activities during the workshop.
  
• Yan Fernandez - is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Astronomy working with Profs. Meech and Jewitt. Yan will be assisting with the nighttime observing projects.
• Chija Skala - is a graduate student at Montana State University. The evaluation portion of the TOPS workshop will form part of her Ph.D. thesis, therefore one of her roles at the workshop is data gathering and documentation.
  
• Gerbs Bauer - is a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy, working on a thesis with Karen Meech. At the workshop, Gerbs will help with the nightly observing sessions, and with the technical set up and execution of many of the hands on activities.
  
• George Bendo - is a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy, working on a thesis with astronomer Bob Joseph. At the workshop, Gerbs will help with the nightly observing sessions, and with the technical set up and execution of many of the hands on activities.
  
• Peter Capak - is a first year graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy, and he has volunteered to help at TOPS.
• Diane Tokumura - is a secretary at the Institute for Astronomy. She does a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work for the workshop, and her help has been invaluable!
  
• Student Assistants - Each year we hire 1-3 students to help with TOPS. Usually these are students who have been through TOPS before (or who have taken astronomy with K. Meech).