Kirk Joseph Bertsche

Address: 242 Ferrari Ave., San Jose, CA 95110-1413
Phone: (408) 452-0314 (home)
Internet: KBertsche@aol.com

Resourceful, creative professional with broad experience in research, design and development of scientific instruments and technical systems. Highly skilled in charged particle dynamics, electronics (analog, digital, high voltage, RF, controls), mechanics, optics, vacuum systems, magnets, and scientific programming. Excel at conception and development of interdisciplinary, novel solutions to technical problems. Good interpersonal skills. Excellent writing and speaking skills. Experienced in supervision of technical personnel and in project management.

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

BS degree in Physics with Honors (1979).

University of California, Berkeley.

MA degree in Physics (1982).
PhD degree in Physics (1989).

• Designed, built, and commissioned small special purpose cyclotron.
• Co-invented and developed two novel electron detector and detection system architectures for commercial wafer inspection SEM. First scheme more than doubled sensitivity to certain defect types; second scheme more than doubled inspection speeds for certain product layers.
• Improved commercial medical linear accelerator; increased cavity tuning accuracy by factor of 4 and redesigned magnetic focusing system, boosting beam current by 10%.
• Proposed and commissioned modifications to synchrotron stochastic cooling system (a microwave feedback system for charged particle position and energy), increasing performance by up to 50%.
• Proposed and co-developed passive temperature compensation scheme for large permanent magnet dipoles, reducing effective temperature coefficient by a factor of 200 in prototype and enabling design of inexpensive Recycler Ring magnets at Fermilab.
• Developed novel instrumentation, including modified Rogowski coil for accurate strength measurement of permanent magnets having high harmonic content and compact non-axisymmetric stripline beam position pickups.
• Managed numerous small design and improvement projects involving charged particles. Included definition of performance and interface requirements, specification and measurement of pertinent parameters, development of computer codes, systems-level design, design of electrical, mechanical, and vacuum components, and cost estimation.
• Coordinated antiproton source operations for three months.
• Co-organized two workshops, with international participation, relating to permanent magnet storage rings.

Computers: Unix, VAX, Mac, IBM-PC
Languages: C, Fortran, Basic, Pascal
Codes: Munro CPO, Parmela, Poisson/Superfish, Transport, Labview
Electronics: Oscilloscopes, Spectrum analyzers, Network analyzers, etc.
Mechanical: Mills, lathes, etc.

7/07-present - - Accelerator Physicist, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA.

Involved with tuning, operation, and improvement of RF systems for the PEP-II and LCLS accelerators.

6/00-7/07 - - Senior Research Scientist, KLA-Tencor, San Jose, CA.

R&D scientist for new SEM products, including novel detection schemes, lens geometries, and system architectures (e.g. REBL, a novel electron beam lithography project). Designed, assembled, and operated test stands, and characterized prototypes.
Systems engineer for current and next-generation scanning electron microscopes for use as a wafer inspection tools. Designed and simulated beam optics; defined detector system architecture; characterized system performance, debugged alpha builds.

1996-6/2000 - - Staff Microwave Engineer, Siemens Medical Solutions/Oncology Care Systems, Concord, CA.

Member of microwave/physics group. Designed new high power standing wave electron accelerator structures and various magnetic circuits for cancer therapy products. Interfaced with manufacturing and final testing to resolve problems. Verified and validated product changes and upgrades.

1994-1996 - - Research Associate, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL.

Member of the accelerator division. Made critical contributions to design of magnet structures and electron cooling for the Recycler, a novel permanent magnet synchrotron.
Analyzed and improved microwave beam pickup and kicker systems. Improved design of stripline beam position monitors. Coordinated antiproton source operation for three months. Wrote control software (5k lines of C) to support tuning of accelerator.

1993-1994 - - Staff Scientist, Superconducting SuperCollider Laboratory, Dallas, TX.

Member of Project Management Organization, responsible for instrumentation, controls and correction algorithms for the MEB (Medium Energy Booster). Defined technical requirements and established locations for diagnostic instrumentation systems. Designed stripline beam position monitors for high vacuum environment, including broadband electrical impedance calculations, impedence matching and structural design. Specified user interfaces for computer control systems and algorithms for tuning beam and measuring beam emittance. Gave SSC educational lectures to community groups.

1990-1992 - - Post-doctoral Physicist, Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.

Member of FN tandem accelerator mass spectrometry crew. Designed tandem and RFQ beam injection lines, including ion optical design, specification of electrical, mechanical and vacuum components, and cost estimation. Assisted with FN tandem accelerator operation and data collection. Interfaced with private industry for development of RFQ accelerator for mass spectrometry. Prepared samples and performed radiocarbon measurements for various archaeological collaborations. Collaborated with LBL researchers on re-design of cyclotrino.

1990 - - Physicist, CTI Cyclotron Systems, Berkeley, CA.

Involved in all parts of cyclotron design, concentrating on central region magnetics. Specified and measured magnetic field contours. Developed 3-D relaxation code for electrostatic calculations. Incorporated magnetic measurements and electrostatic field maps into in-house particle tracking code to study beam dynamics. Designed and built magnet current regulator and hall probe amplifiers.

1982-1989 - - Graduate Student Research Assistant, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

Designed and built small cyclotron ("cyclotrino") for use as a mass spectrometer at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1982-1989). Performed fundamental design of accelerator and ion optical system, design and fabrication of mechanical components, design and fabrication of electronic circuits for operation at low currents, RF frequencies, and high voltages, including design of high-stability servo-controlled power supplies.
Assisted with hardware for IR astronomical camera at the Space Sciences Laboratory (1982).

1980-1982 - - Teaching Assistant, Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

Taught discussion sections and laboratories for elementary physics courses.

1979-1982 - - Associate Physicist, Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD.

Performed investigations into voltage contrast electron microscopy (1980-1982); worked on new computer design concepts for Navy Aegis system (1979-1980); participated in three-month Associate Staff Training Program, characterizing small-scale motion of a towed oceanographic platform (1979).

1976-1978 - - Technical Help, Magnavox Gov't & Industrial Electronics Co., Fort Wayne, IN. (Subsequently bought by Hughes Aircraft Co in 1995, then Raytheon in 1997. Sonobouy systems bought by Ultra Electronics in 1998.)

Assisted engineering staff with testing, assembly, and debugging of sonobouy systems.

Available on request.

33 publications, 13 patents issued, 1 patent pending. Available on request.

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