B.A. ASTROPHYSICS

UC BERKELEY C/O 2023

About Me:

I am a senior researcher with the Nebulous collaboration studying evolutionary algorithm applications for astronomy instrumentation!

I also work as a coding instructor at The Coder School, Berkeley.

RESEARCH

A Methodology for Evolving Aerodynamically Optimal Spacecraft in the Free Molecular Flow Conditions of Very Low Earth Orbits

Julie Rolla, Rick Marcusen, Evan Imata, Emily Dolson, Max Foreback, Kyle Helson, Marcin Pilinski, Anselmo Pontes, Jonathan Sy, Joey Wagner.

Feburary 15, 2026

ABSTRACT. — Very low Earth orbit (VLEO) enables improved spatial resolution and access to the lower thermosphere, but sustained operations are limited by strong, highly variable aerodynamic drag in the free molecular flow regime. In addition to drag, spacecraft must also meet numerous other requirements, including...

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ECLIPSE: An Evolutionary Computation Library for Instrumentation Prototyping in Scientific Engineering

Max Foreback, Evan Imata, Vincent Ragusa, Jacob Weiler, Christina Shao, Joey Wagner, Katherine G. Skocelas, Jonathan Sy, Aman Hafez, Wolfgang Banzhaf, Amy Conolly, Kyle R. Helson, Rick Marcusen, Charles Ofria, Marcin Pilinski, Rajiv Ramnath, Bryan Reynolds, Anselmo C. Pontes, Emily Dolson, Julie Rolla.

January 13, 2026

ABSTRACT. — Designing scientific instrumentation often requires exploring large, highly constrained design spaces using computationally expensive physics simulations. These simulators pose substantial challenges for integrating evolutionary computation (EC) into scientific design workflows. Evolutionary computation typically requires...

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Solar-Energetic-Particle Track-Production Rates in Interplanetary Dust Grains at 1 AU

A. R. Poppe, P. S. Szabo, E. R. Imata, L. P. Keller, and R. Christoffersen.

December 1, 2023

ABSTRACT. — Heavy (Z>26) solar energetic particles (SEPs) with energies ~1 MeV/nucleon are known to leave visible damage tracks in meteoritic materials. The density of such "solar flare tracks" in lunar and asteroidal samples has been used as a measure of a sample's exposure time to space, yielding critical information on planetary space weathering rates [e.g., 1] and the dynamics and lifetimes of interplanetary dust grains [e.g., 2, 3]. Knowledge of the SEP track accumulation rate in planetary materials at 1 au is critical for...

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POSTER: Observing and Obtaining a Light Curve from a Potential Transiting Exoplanet

Derek Kaplan, Evan Imata, Tommaso Frigerio, Xinze Guo, Nadia Laswi, Anders Liu, Jeffrey Martinez

Dates of Research Involvement: September 2021 — May 2022

OUTREACH

Students provide interactive STEM learning experience to at-risk kids

June 29, 2021

A team of University of Hawai'i at Mānoa students introduced the world of robots to keiki at the Institute for Human Services (IHS) in Iwilei for UH Mānoa's “Be a Scientist” day on June 28. IHS is a human services agency focused on preventing and ending homelessness. Ionica Macadangdang, a senior biological engineering major, and Evan Imata, a junior astrophysics major, provided a hands-on learning experience with Dash bots...

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CURRENT

February 15, 2026

New publication in the NASA Interplanetary Network Progress Report on evolutionary algorithm applications for spacecraft design. Read the abstract here.

December 20, 2024

I conducted research on solar energetic particle interactions with interplanetary dust grains at the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. My results have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and the NASA Technical Reports Server. Read the abstract here.

Contact

Email: evanimata@berkeley.edu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanimata/