1. Capabilities Highlights
Nelson Wallace
B.S. Physics, Georgia Tech
M.S. Optics, University of Rochester
• Optical Systems Engineering
• Systems Performance Management
• Optical Systems Performance Prediction
• Modeling, Analysis, & Simulations
• Detailed Optical Engineering
• Design, Analysis, Tolerancing, Assembly, & Alignment
• Management
• Project and Line Leadership
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nwwallace@roadrunner.com
4/7/2009

2. Optical Systems Engineering
Systems Performance Management
• Top-level performance requirements development and allocation or translation into
subsystem requirements and designs
• Validation and optimization of system performance through top-down and bottom-
up requirements and performance analyses
• Key front-end trade-offs, prioritization of optical system requirements, and
development of solutions or technical alternatives in order to reduce program risks
• Identification of system cost drivers and suggestions for alternatives
• Specification creation, cost estimate, technology readiness assessment, vendor
evaluations, source selection, engineering for fabrication, subassembly
integration, testing, and troubleshooting
• Verification methodologies
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3. Optical Systems Performance Prediction
Modeling, Analysis, & Simulations
• Creation of computer models to predict and optimize overall instrument
performance against mission requirements, such as
• signal-to-noise ratio
• system and optics modulation transfer function
• classification accuracy
• ground resolved distance
• radiometric accuracy
• sub-pixel centroid tracker accuracy
• special instrument-specific performance measures in MathCad
• polarization accuracy
• star tracker availability
• custom models as needed
• Proficient with atmospheric transmission and radiance codes (MODTRAN, etc.)
• Control of off-nominal conditions such as degradations from jitter, optics
aberrations, detector noise and cross-talk, electronics noise, stray light, absorption
and multiple scattering effects from long atmospheric paths or murky water,
Fresnel diffraction, tolerances of manufacturing, assembly, alignment, and
environmental effects.
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4. Detailed Optical Engineering
Design, Analysis, Tolerancing, Assembly, & Alignment
• Proficient with current optical design, analysis, and stray light software; specifically, Code V,
OSLO, ZEMAX, Accos V, HEXAGON, MACOS, Mini-APART, ASAP, SOAR, Guerap V, FRED,
Light Tools and TracePro, LOTS & GLAD propagation codes, and TFCalc thin film code.
• Determined pointing error sensitivities for lasercomm cross link optics.
• Produced error budgets for clear aperture, pointing, and wavefront error for National Ignition
Facility laser, including thermally and mechanically induced errors.
• Produced original optical designs for an extremely wide field-of-view surveillance lens
required to have an external, forward stop.
• Designed a refractor well corrected for color over a very wide spectral range using glass
choices insensitive to darkening from space radiation.
• Performed iterated tolerancing for the reflective optics of a solar telescope.
• Used Guerap V to determine the susceptibility of an optical sensor to stray light effects from
laser jamming.
• In Code V, wrote custom performance evaluation macros to control the cross-track spectral
and spatial co-registration errors of an imaging spectrometer during optimization, and during
user-defined tolerancing. Created user-defined surfaces for evaluation of performance
degradations from thermally induced refractive index gradient profiles in an infrared sensor.
• Design, tolerancing, specification, procurement, inspection, and hands-on optical assembly
and alignment of NASA's Glory APS optical trains.
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5. Management
Project and Line Leadership
• Technical proposal design, coordination, and management
• Optical systems engineering projects management from pre-proposal through
design and development to production, testing, and operation.
• As functional manager and as project manager, directed technical people in
hardware and simulation projects.
• Interfaced directly with customers and their technical consultants.
• Fifteen years line management experience.
• Twelve years project management experience
• Communication and interpersonal skills.
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