Austin Richards is an Adjunct Professor at Brooks and has been teaching part time there since 2000. Austin's day job is as a Senior Research Scientist at FLIR Systems in Goleta where he oversees the integration of infrared camera systems for security and defense applications. He holds a PhD. in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley, and a BA in Physics from Amherst College, and has been a faculty advisor on 6 Brooks Master’s theses in the topics of scientific ultraviolet, infrared and x-ray imaging. Austin teaches CIS546, a required MFA course called Contemporary Imaging Systems, which involves studio work with highly technical cameras that image outside the visible spectrum, in the infrared and ultraviolet bands. Current events that he is organizing include an Ultraviolet Imaging Symposium scheduled in Oct. 2008, which will include crime scene investigators; ultraviolet experts form the photonics industry, and Brooks students and faculty.