NASA Nobel Prize Recipient to Focus on Telescope Science Activities
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 17:57:08 -0700 (PDT)
April 1, 2008
Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@xxxxxxxx
RELEASE: 08-092
NASA NOBEL PRIZE RECIPIENT TO FOCUS ON TELESCOPE SCIENCE ACTIVITIES
WASHINGTON -- NASA scientist and 2006 Nobel Prize recipient John
Mather will devote more of his time at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., to provide additional focus and support as
senior project scientist and chair of the Science Working Group for
the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Mather has been dividing his
time in that role and serving as lead scientist in the Office of the
Chief Scientist within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA
Headquarters in Washington since April 2007.
"My priority now for JWST is entirely driven by the needs of the
project. As the telescope progresses, we have numerous challenges
ahead of us on the technical side that have to be addressed," Mather
said. "However, despite the workload, I still plan to continue to
serve in the Office of the Chief Scientist a few days a week until
further notice. My decision is entirely unrelated to recent personnel
changes at NASA Headquarters."
The Webb Telescope, the next step after the Hubble Space Telescope, is
a large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in
2013. It will find the first galaxies that formed in the early
universe and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary
systems. The telescope's instruments will be designed to work
primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with
some capability in the visible range. The telescope will have a large
mirror, 21.3 feet in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis
court. It will reside in an orbit about 1 million miles from Earth.
Mather joined Goddard to head the Cosmic Background Explorer Mission
as project scientist. He has been a Goddard Fellow since 1994.
A recipient of numerous awards, Mather has a bachelor's degree in
physics from Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa., and a doctorate in
physics from the University of California, Berkeley. In October 2006,
Mather and George Smoot of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
Berkeley, Calif., received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their
collaborative work in understanding the Big Bang.
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