I have spent the majority of my time over more than a decade working on the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) spectrographs as the Instrument Scientist.  The first instrument, commissioned in 2011, is at the 2.5-m Sloan Foundation Telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.  The second instrument, a close copy of the first and commissioned in 2017, is at the 2.5-m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.  The APOGEE survey has been led by the PI, Steve Majewski (UVa).

It has been my good fortune to work on these instruments.  Requiring a collaboration across multiple academic institutions, observatories, commercial companies, and consultants, I've been able to interact with and learn from some of the best instrument builders in astronomy.  

Both near-infrared, fiber-fed, high resolution spectrographs are collecting hundreds of thousands of spectra for a comprehensive chemical and kinematical survey of all parts of the Milky Way for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.  Please see Wilson et al. 2019 for full details.