27 September 1999 Alan Buswell ('84)

I am currently Senior Scientist, Spectral Technology Group with Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Corp. in Dayton Ohio. I work to develop algorithms, techniques and tools for extracting information from remote sensing data, primarily hyperspectral data.

After graduation from VU, I attended graduate school at the University of Dayton, majoring in electro-optics which is an interdisciplinary program between the physics and electrical engineering departments. I received my Master's and then went to work for a company called Analytic Decisions, Inc., which was later bought by Ball Aerospace. I have now been with ADI/Ball for over 13 years in which time I have worked in a number of areas of remote sensing, primarily for US Air Force applications. One of the more interesting projects I have worked on was a joint project with the US Geological Survey to apply remote sensing technologies from the Department of Defense to address environmental issues. As part of that study, I spent almost 6 weeks working on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii.

I think my years at VU provided a good foundation for my career so far. One of the things I appreciated at VU was the variety. The physics program provided a grounding in the fundamentals that allowed me to consider the type of area I would enjoy. In my case, I enjoyed the electromagnetics courses, and when I looked at graduate schools, I found a program that continued along those lines. When I looked for a job, I looked for something that would provide the opportunity for variety. My experiences with VU nurtured me by providing a broad based background from astronomy to quantum mechanics to the Philosophy of Science class that Dr. Manweiler taught. And I have ended up using something from each of those areas in my post-VU experiences. Maybe the thing that has shaped me most, and I probably didn't appreciate it at the time, was that my VU experience really did help me learn to think and how to approach problems. My message to students would be, don't expect to find the answer to what you want to do now, but expect your career will be a continual process that changes as you, and the world we live in, changes.

Alan