MEET DR. JOHN C. MATHER: CHIEF SCIENTIST, SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE, NASA HEADQUARTERS AND SENIOR PROJECT SCIENTIST
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Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo
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Dr. John C. Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. He is also the Chief Scientist of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington, and a Senior Project Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope.
He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania as well as a doctorate in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Mather’s research centers on infrared astronomy and cosmology.
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As a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City, he led the proposal efforts for the Cosmic Background Explorer mission (1974-76), and came to Goddard Space Flight Center to become the Study Scientist (1976-88), Project Scientist (1988-98), and also the Principal Investigator for the Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE).
Dr. Mather and the COBE team showed that the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum within 50 parts per million (ppm), confirming the Big Bang theory to extraordinary accuracy.
As Senior Project Scientist (1995-present) for the Webb telescope, Dr. Mather leads the science team, and represents scientific interests within the project management. He is also Chief Scientist of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, where he provides independent scientific advice on all aspects of the NASA science program.
Dr. Mather has served on advisory and working groups for the National Academy of Sciences, NASA, and the National Science Foundation for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), and the Center for Astrophysical Research in the Antarctic (CAMA).
As winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Dr. Mather shares the prize with George F. Smoot of the University of California for their work using the COBE satellite to measure the heat radiation from the Big Bang.
Links
For Dr. Mather's Home Page, visit:
http://mather.gsfc.nasa.gov
For more information Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), visit:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/
For more information on the Center for Astrophysical Research in the Antarctic (CAMA), visit:
http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/
For information on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE):
http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/cobe/
For information about the Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS):
http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/cobe/firas_overview.cfm
