Jesse M. Goldbaum: President. Spent over twenty five years in the aerospace industry, mostly with Boeing’s Directed Energy Systems where I worked on a variety of projects, including advanced imaging algorithms and electro-optical systems simulation. A BA (‘78), and MS (‘81) astronomy degrees are both from San Diego State University. My interests range from tracking and imaging LEO satellites to double star speckle imaging to imaging active galaxies. I’m also interested in quality management and control processes applied to an observatory setting. I develop software for instrument control and data reduction and am involved with TAI outreach activities including this website. I’ve been an adjunct astronomy professor at Santa Monica College for the last few years.

Robert W. Harwell: Treasurer. After receiving his BS in Electronics (‘68) from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Bob went to work for various employers performing digital and analog design. Bob was one of the founders of Microlumentics where he designed and built the Cyrocam CCD camera, one of which was used by TAI until recently. Bob has also worked in optical design and software development. Bob has been consulting for the last several years and has volunteered countless hours applying his interests and expertise towards improving the performance of our 24”, most recently with the design and installation of absolute encoders for the mount.

Michael J. Hoffert: Secretary. Mike’s day job is as an FAA certified quality control engineer with the Timken corporation where he works on the rebuilding and manufacture of aircraft power plant turbines. He’s also worked on the mechanical assemblies and power systems for the Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. He has a BA in Music (‘74) (minor in physics) from California State University at Fullerton and an MS Comp. Sci (‘01) also from CSUF. Mike has been a physics and astronomy Lecturer at CSUF and currently is an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy and Physical Science at Concordia University where he teaches evening classes. Mike’s main interests are mostly in the facility and corporate administrative elements central to TAI.

Sina Sadjadi: Vice President. Sina’s been teaching Astronomy and Physics in the San Diego Community College system for over thirty years and he regularly organizes field trips to TDS observatory. Sina also received his BA (‘78) and MS (‘81) astronomy degrees from SDSU. He is coauthor on a paper about low mass astrophysical binaries. Sina is the Director of the TDS observatory. His interests include advanced imaging applications and CCD photometry.