Don Figer
Director of Center for Detectors
Don Figer
Director of Center for Detectors
Education
BA, Northwestern University; MS, University of Chicago; Ph.D., University of California
Bio
Dr. Figer is Director of the Center for Detectors. He is a professor in the College of Science with appointments in the Astrophysical Science and Technology Ph.D. program and the Microsystems Engineering Ph.D. program. He is a leader in developing and deploying new photon detection technologies.
Currently Teaching
In the News
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November 10, 2020
![iilustration of two stars and a black hole in space.]()
Rethinking black holes: New theory says that something that goes into one won’t be gone for good
WROC-TV talks to Don Figer, professor and director of RIT’s Future Photon Initiative and the Center for Detectors, about black holes.
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October 13, 2020
![professor giving presentation at podium.]()
Super-massive black hole discovery brings home the Nobel Prize in physics, and an RIT professor helped
WROC-TV talks to Don Figer, professor and director of RIT’s Future Photon Initiative and the Center for Detectors, about this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.
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August 5, 2020
![detector chip carriers and socket.]()
RIT student Justin Gallagher helps lead NASA-funded project to build single photon detectors
An RIT student is on a mission to help build detectors that could identify individual photons from distant, inhabitable planets. Justin Gallagher, a fifth-year student from Rochester, N.Y., pursuing his BS in physics and MS in astrophysical sciences and technology, is serving as project manager for a nearly $1 million grant funded by NASA to create a single photon sensing and number resolving detector for NASA missions.
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February 2, 2021
Figer, Gallagher featured in NASA newsletter
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October 6, 2020
Figer publishes article in journal