Roger Angel

• Program

  LFAST

• Institution

  University of Arizona

University of Arizona Regents’ Professor Roger Angel began his research in atomic physics, turning to X-ray astronomy, then optical astronomy and telescope design. In 1985 he founded the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab to cast large honeycomb glass mirrors, and developed with Buddy Martin the stressed lap method for polishing aspheres. The Lab’s mirrors, up to 8.4 m diameter, are used in telescopes worldwide. Angel pioneered the use of optical fibers for multi-object spectroscopy, and of deformable secondary mirrors for astronomical adaptive optics. With colleague Nick Woolf, he also developed concepts to search for spectroscopic evidence of life (using ozone absorption) on exoplanets. Later, addressing global warming, Angel explored optical solutions to cool the Earth with a space sunshade comprising a cloud of small spacecraft at L1. In the past 15 years he has developed and patented different forms of concentrating optics to improve the efficiency of solar photovoltaic generation. More recently he has been developing focusing heliostats to approach the 2nd law limit to sunlight concentration, by forming disc images of the sun. These have the potential for making green hydrogen by solar heating. Angel was educated at Oxford and Caltech, and has been honored with the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, a MacArthur fellowship, and election to the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences.