About Me

Hey! I’m Charles Lee - an astrophysics 🔭 PhD Student at the University of Manitoba, where I design and simulate ultraviolet cameras for next-generation space telescopes. Prior to my gradual conversion into an astronomer, I studied Engineering Physics ⚙️ ⚛ (specializing in electrical engineering) at the University of British Columbia. This is my personal website, where I document my professional portfolio and make blog posts about personal projects / my life.

My professional interests lie in applied R&D, particularly in space. I am fascinated by how technology evolves from lab concepts solving scientific problems to demonstrated space technologies to products that serve the public. I’m directly exploring this for the next few months through a $15k Mitacs Business Strategy Internship grant as part of the Technology Readiness Level-Up Program.

Research-wise, I am currently working on diffractive simulations of digital micromirror devices (DMD) for a proposed multi-object spectrograph on the CASTOR mission, a Canada-led project to build the next flagship ultraviolet-optical space telescope. I am interested in exploring how spatial light modulators like DMD behave in the UV and how they could be used as programmable slits for advanced imaging. Understanding their optical effects will help us define realistic science cases for our Ultraviolet Multi-Object Spectrograph (UVMOS). This project is supported by the National Research Council of Canada as part of their Small Teams Initiative.

Beyond my reesearch, I am also the Director of Marketing at the Zenith Pathways Foundation. I am a 1.5-generation 🇹🇼 immigrant to 🇨🇦 and love to talk about places to visit in both countries!