David Bernat

Physics Ph. D.

Chief Executive Officer
Starlight Spaceflight, New York, NY

Previously:
Software Engineer (SWE) III
Google, Inc., New York, NY

Neuroscience, Brain-Machine Interface Postdoc SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY

Astrophysics Ph. D.
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Resume | Academic Summary

Professional Interests and About Me

    Today:

    I am currently leading an incredible team of aerospace, communications, remote sensing, and machine learning experts to startup innovative mission architectures and business models for small satellites and remote sensing.
       Our company site can be found at www.starlightspaceflight.com.


    Natural Language Processing at Google:

    As a software engineer on the artificial intelligence team at Google, I worked on an exciting machine that will one-day learn by reading the web and [redacted].


    Postdoc building Brain Machine Interfaces:

This research team led by Joseph Francis at SUNY Downstate Medical Center is working on the incredible methods for connecting external machines to the human brain and creating data sources for neuroprosthetics by sensing the sensorimotor cortext. I loved working as part of this group of researchers and feel awe for the technology and its future impact. I have used non-invasive brain machine interfaces to move cursors on a screen and, let me tell you, it feels jedi. I only wish I would have been at the lab longer after the robotic arm arrived.

    Dissertation Research:

My dissertation research focused on high-contrast, high-angular resolution infrared imaging using a novel technique known as Non-Redundant Aperture Masking Interferometry with Adaptive Optics. My work focused on the advancement of the technique and detection and mass measurement of brown dwarfs in binary systems to provide empirical tests of brown dwarf and Jupiter-mass exoplanet theoretical (evolution) models. Similar techniques will be part of astronomical surveys aiming to directly image gas giant planets in nearby solar systems using new telescope imagers, such as the Project 1640 Integral Field Spectrograph, Gemini Planet Imager, and the James Webb Space Telescope. In short, we have entered the era in which a growing anthology of planetary systems are being discovered, analyzed, and characterized, and this is an amazing time to be a scientist!
Previously, I used perturbative and numerical methods to predict that modifications to General Relativity are inconsistent with some pre-existing observational data of galaxy clusters and studied Early-Universe Cosmology.

    Ask An Astronomer:

    I had been a very active contributor to Cornell's Ask An Astronomer program, and I led the inaugural team that developed, wrote, and produced our new Ask An Astronomer Podcast series.
    I have also tried my hands at writing a proposal (prospectus) for a popular science book on exoplanets.

    Educational and Policy Interests:

    I take the quality of science education very seriously and actively have tried to create opportunities to bring leading educational resources into my classroom and my department. I had been very active in outreach programs that target mentorship of K-12 students (Expand Your Horizons, Adopt-A-Physicist) and the communication of complex physics and astronomy to curious non-scientists.
    I had been very active the Physics Graduate Society, and occasional contributed to larger University organizations. I also looked for opportunities to engage where my expertise may be able to contribute to science-informed policy decisions. Recently, I wrote this letter in response to the proposed bill House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science that would cut NASA’s budget by $1.6 billion and end development of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

I am a Philadelphia suburb native, living in New York City by way of a piecewise trajectory that has taken me through Cornell University in Ithaca, NY; Caltech in Pasadena, California; and a brief stint on Wall Street. I absolutely love New York City, where I live.

My research and professional interests are described above. Each winter I'm waiting for the Phillies' opening day or playing my Fender Stratocaster in the hopes of getting that Bruce Springsteen sound.