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Ahmed Soliman

Ahmed Soliman with BICEP Array Telescope at the South Pole

About me:

  • Ahmed is a Postdoctoral Researcher at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) / Caltech: https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/ahmed-mohamed
  • Ahmed was a PhD Research Fellow at the Observational Cosmology Group - California Institute of Technology, and he is currently a visiting researcher. Ahmed is a member of BICEP/Keck collaboration from Caltech/ JPL NASA team, which is series of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments to measure the B-mode of the CMB. Our team design BICEP Array telescope to constrain inflationary gravitational waves at the South Pole, the sign of inflation after the Big-Bang. Ahmed and his team members have deployed the first low frequency receiver at the South Pole in 2020 austral season and has been collecting CMB data since then.

Awards and Recognitions

  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Postdoctoral Fellowship NASA/ Caltech (2023).
  • SoCaltech series highlighted (link)
  • Caltech Graduate leadership/International Impact Award,2023. (link)
  • Caltech EAS Alumni ENGenuity Newsletter Feature, 2023. (Magazine)
  • The California-Tech Magazine Feature (Magazine and Caltech Magazine), 2023.
  • Caltech Everhart Distinguished PhD Graduate Lecture (2023) (link).
  • The Antarctica Service Medal of the United States of America (2020), Awarded by the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense in recognition of valuable contributions to exploration and scientific achievement under the U.S. Antarctic program, for BICAP Array receiver deployment to the South Pole, 2019 and 2021 seasons.
  • The National Science Foundation Award for two projects (as contributor): 1) Collaborative Research: Imaging the Beginning of Time from the South Pole: The next Stage of the BICEP Program, and 2) MRI: Development of a 150 GHz Receiver for the BICEP Array CMB Polarimeter.
  • The Second Prize for the Best Student Paper Award, IEEE Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference, South Korea, 2016.
  • Caltech Graduate Research Assistantship (2017).
  • Caltech Graduate Master Scholarship (2015).

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, 2023
  • M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2017
  • M.Eng in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ain shams University, Cairo, Egypt, 2014
  • B.Sc. in Electrical and Communication Engineering, Shoubra Faculty of Engineering, Benha University, Cairo, Egypt, 2009

Latest papers:

  • BICEP/Keck Collaboration (including A. Soliman) "BICEP/Keck XVII: Line of Sight Distortion Analysis: Estimates of Gravitational Lensing, Anisotropic Cosmic Birefringence, Patchy Reionization, and Systematic Errors", The Astrophysical Journal, 2023.
  • The BICEP/Keck Collaboration (including A. Soliman) "BICEP / Keck XVI: Characterizing Dust Polarization through Correlations with Neutral Hydrogen," The Astrophysical Journal, 2023.
  • A. Soliman for the BICEP/Keck Collaboration "2022 Upgrade and Improved Low Frequency Camera Sensitivity for CMB Observation at the South Pole," Proceedings of the Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far- Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy, International Society for Optics and Photonics, SPIE, (2022).
  • The BICEP/Keck (including A. Soliman) "Bicep/Keck XV: The Bicep3 cosmic microwave background polarimeter and the first three-year data set" The Astrophysical Journal, 2022.
  • BICEP2 and Keck Array Collaboration (including A. Soliman) "Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season", Physics Review Letters, 2021.
  • The BICEP/Keck (including A. Soliman) and SPTpol Collaborations "A Demonstration of Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves with Delensing", Physics Review D, 2020.
  • A. Soliman and the BICEP/Keck Collaboration "Optical Design and Characterization of 40-GHz Detector and Module for the BICEP Array" Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 2020.
  • BICEP/Keck Array Collaboration (including A. Soliman) "Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background" Physical Review D, 2020.
  • BICEP/Keck Array Collaboration (including A. Soliman), "Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves Using Planck, WMAP, and New BICEP2/Keck Observations through the 2015 Season," Physical review letters, 2020.
  • BICEP/Keck Array Collaboration (including A. Soliman) "BICEP2/Keck Array XI: Beam Characterization and Temperature-to- Polarization Leakage in the BK15 Data Set," The Astrophysical Journal, v.884, 2019.
  • A. Soliman for BICEP/Keck Collaboration, "Design and performance of single/wide band corrugated walls for the bicep array detector modules at 30/40 GHz," Proceedings of the Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far- Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy, International Society for Optics and Photonics, SPIE, (2018).
BICEP Team
BICEP Team with BICEP Array Telescope at the South Pole

Science and Educational Outreach

I wrote a scientific article in the Scientific American Journal/Arabic Edition about our experiment at Pole (article). The main idea is to simplify the complicated science for public audience to enjoy.

Caltech Graduate ISP Orientation leader for three years.

I launched many educational outreaches by presenting many science and educational talks to STEM schools around the world (Egypt, USA, Palestine, Jordan) while we were deploying our BICEP Array project at the South Pole. These educational events were mainly about science of the early universe, our BICEP Array Experiment, and our daily life at the coldest place on Earth, South Pole. These videos spread rapidly on social media and exceeded millions of views. In general, these videos motivated the students for active learning that engages emotions and facilitates the recall of thoughts and ideas about the important of education. Such innovative events are needed to better engage students of all ages in science around the globe. I was really happy that public people specially students started to love and engage more in science. One of these schools (College Saint-Joesph Khoronfish school) awarded me the school appreciation honor during my visit to Egypt. I am really proud of these events. The education could change everything for the better.

Educational Events

In the press

Research Projects

-The National Science Foundation "MRI: Development of a 150 GHz Receiver for the BICEP Array CMB Polarimeter" (link)

-The National Science Foundation " Collaborative Research: Imaging the Beginning of Time from the South Pole: The next Stage of the BICEP Program " (link)

-NASA "Superconducting Antenna-Coupled Detectors and Readouts for CMB polarimetry in PICO"