Brief Bio
Tod was born and raised in New York (Long Island to be precise), where during his formative years he developed a keen interest in science and hockey, but not necessarily in that order. In 1985 he graduated with a degree in Physics (BS) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and then moved West to the University of Rochester (NY) to do graduate work in astrophysics. Under the supervision of Hugh van Horn his PhD, "On Observing Neutron Star Oscillations", was completed in 1991. After that he continued to drift westward, landing at Los Alamos National Lab, where he worked with Ed Fenimore on coded mask imaging, gamma-ray bursts and assorted neutron star physics. He came back East to Goddard in Summer 1994 to work on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) Proportional Counter Array (PCA) science team led by Jean Swank. He carries out a diverse research program focused primarily on the physics of compact stellar remnants, and tries to play a game of soccer now and again.
Research Interests
Tod's research focuses on the physics of compact stellar remmants: neutron stars, black holes and white dwarfs. Specific areas of study include, X-ray Binaries; Neutron Stars; Black Holes; Compact White Dwarf Binaries; Soft Gamma Repeaters; Gamma-Ray Bursts.
Brief Bio
Tod was born and raised in New York (Long Island to be precise), where during his formative years he developed a keen interest in science and hockey, but not necessarily in that order. In 1985 he graduated with a degree in Physics (BS) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and then moved West to the University of Rochester (NY) to do graduate work in astrophysics. Under the supervision of Hugh van Horn his PhD, "On Observing Neutron Star Oscillations", was completed in 1991. After that he continued to drift westward, landing at Los Alamos National Lab, where he worked with Ed Fenimore on coded mask imaging, gamma-ray bursts and assorted neutron star physics. He came back East to Goddard in Summer 1994 to work on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) Proportional Counter Array (PCA) science team led by Jean Swank. He carries out a diverse research program focused primarily on the physics of compact stellar remnants, and tries to play a game of soccer now and again.
