From Concept to First Light: Building iLocater for Exoplanet Discovery

Discovering new worlds beyond our Solar System requires pushing the boundaries of what is technologically possible. The iLocater instrument represents over a decade of innovation and instrument development towards this goal. As Co-PI of this ambitious project, led jointly by the University of Notre Dame and The Ohio State University, Dr. Crass will present a behind-the-scenes view of building one of the world’s most precise radial velocity spectrographs. He’ll cover the journey from initial concept to its upcoming installation at the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, and explore what it means for the future of exoplanet discovery around our nearest stellar neighbors.

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