Jon Lighthall
Research Physicist at U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Covington, Louisiana, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJon Lighthall is a research physicist with over a decade of hands-on experience designing experimental hardware and end-to-end software for nuclear physics and ocean acoustics modeling. He has led detector commissioning, developed DAQ, calibration and simulation toolchains (C++, ROOT, Fortran, Geant4, MATLAB), and managed collaborative experiments from beamline setup to data analysis. At the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory he applies his background in nuclear instrumentation to simulate and assimilate acoustic propagation into 4D ocean models, bridging laboratory techniques with field-scale modeling. He routinely mentors students across levels and has repeatedly served as principal investigator on complex measurements, demonstrating both technical leadership and practical engineering skill. His uncommon mix of electronics, simulation, and scientific software development makes him adept at turning intricate experimental requirements into reproducible, production-ready analysis workflows.
11 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Physics, Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Physics at Albion CollegeDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Nuclear Physics, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Nuclear Physics at Western Michigan University
English
Stackoverflow
11reputation
311reached
1answer
0questions
Github Skills (7)
git6
matlab5
latex4
octave4
oceanography3
earth-science3
toolbox3
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
jonlighthall/wmu
Feb 2017 - Jan 2021
Western Michigan University Thesis Template
Contributions:2 PRs, 16 pushes, 10 branches in 3 years 11 months
templateuniversity-thesisthesis-templatemichiganthesis
jonlighthall/nrf
Feb 2019 - Mar 2025
Contributions:123 pushes, 1 branch, 8 comments in 6 years 2 months
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