Role at ANSTO
Dr Dom Appadoo is a Senior Beamline Scientist on the THz/Far-IR beamline at the Australian Synchrotron. He manages the THz/Far-IR beamline, and is responsible for maintaining, improving and expanding the capabilities of the beamline as well; he also assists and collaborates with visiting scientists.
Born on the tiny tropical island of Mauritius, Dom attended the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada where he completed a Bachelor’s (1991) and Master’s (1993) degree under the co-supervision of Professor Peter Bernath and the late Professor Robert J. LeRoy. There, he was exposed to the famous RKR & LEVEL programs written by Professor LeRoy to calculate potential energy curves and energy levels for diatomic molecules. After writing some code to fit spectroscopic data of diatomic molecules to Dunham expansions, Dom joined Professor Bernath’s group to design & build laser-induced fluorescence and laser excitation techniques.
Equipped with a background in theoretical chemistry, and molecular spectroscopy, he then enrolled for a PhD degree at Monash University under the tutelage of Dr Richard Morisson and Prof Don McNaughton in 1997. During his PhD, he designed and built a CCD detector system to monitor the emission products of a corona discharge supersonic expansion; the discharge system was then used to generate the CN radical, and its ro-vibronic emission spectrum was recorded using a FT spectrometer from the near-IR down to the mid-IR. He also designed and built a dual-pass enclosive flow cooling cryogenic gas cell to study the simplified spectra of HFC’s. His thesis was titled: ”Spectral Simplification Techniques for High-Resolution FT Spectroscopic Studies”.
After obtaining his PhD degree in 2002, he was offered a post-doctoral position in Professor Peter Bernath’s lab at the University of Waterloo where he studied the emission FT spectra of metal hydrides and di-hydrides produced in a tube-furnace. In 2003, Dom was then offered a position as a Beamline Scientist at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron facility in Saskatchewan where he completed the construction of the Far-IR beamline, and started the user gas-phase program based around a 2m long multipass cryogenic gas cell.
In 2007, Dom joined the Australian Synchrotron as a Senior Scientist on the THz/Far-IR beamline. Since his arrival, he has been developing both gas & condensed phase programs offering scientists a wide array of techniques such as multipass gas-cells, furnace as well as lasers to create short-lived molecular gaseous species of astrophysical and atmospheric interest, and also cryostats and ATR techniques for condensed-phase applications ranging from biological, forensics, and materials.
Expertise
His expertise is in the study of gases of atmospheric & astrophysical importance using high-resolution Fourier transform spectroscopy; he also designs vacuum and scientific apparatus. He is also well versed in cryogenic & ATR techniques routinely used to study condensed-phase samples.
Qualifications & Achievements
- Post-Doctoral position held at the University of Waterloo, Canada (2002-2003)
- PhD in Spectral simplification techniques for High Resolution FT spectroscopic studies, Monash University (2002)
- MSc in Theoretical/Physical Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Canada (1993)
- BSc in Theoretical Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Canada (1991)