Scott Will
Optical Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolScott Will is an optical engineer with 11 years of experience developing wavefront sensing and control algorithms for coronagraphy and space-based astronomy, currently advancing technologies at NASA Goddard to enable direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets. He completed a Ph.D. in Optics at the University of Rochester, where he focused on computationally efficient wavefront control and contributed to LUVOIR modeling and the HiCAT segmented-aperture testbed. His work spans simulation, lab instrumentation, and on-sky demonstrations—including spectral linear dark field control tested with Subaru’s CHARIS instrument—bridging theory and practical implementation. Based in Washington, D.C., he also applies image reconstruction expertise across astronomy and biomedical imaging, reflecting a rare combination of deep algorithmic skill and hands-on experimental experience.
11 years of coding experience
1 year of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Optics, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Optics at University of RochesterBachelor of Science (BS), Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 3.93/4.0, Bachelor of Science (BS), Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 3.93/4.0 at University at Buffalo
Github Skills (30)
propagation9
diffraction9
astronomy8
nearest-neighbors7
pattern-recognition7
optimizer7
python7
hardware6
react5
falco5
gpu5
automatic-differentiation5
instrumentation5
machine-learning5
pytorch5
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
sdwill/modeling-utils
Mar 2020 - Mar 2022
Some utility functions for numerical modeling
Contributions:6 PRs, 31 pushes, 8 branches in 2 years
utility-functionsnumerical-modelingpythonjuliamodeling
sdwill/dotfiles
Jun 2021 - Mar 2025
Contributions:58 pushes, 6 branches in 3 years 9 months
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