Interview with Matt Mountain, President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), and Telescope Scientist & Science Working Group member for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Mountain recounts growing up in the UK and his early interest in science. He reflects on his time at Imperial College London, where his interest in astronomy suited his background in physics and his work on the infrared. He describes drifting away from theoretical physics and moving towards building instruments, later building one of the first infrared spectrographs for his PhD dissertation. He recounts his recruitment to the Royal Observatory Edinburgh by the Astronomer Royal Malcolm Longair, where he would help build CGS4 for the UKIRT telescope. Mountain recalls working with Tim Hawarden on his idea of passive cooling, which would later be used JWST. He describes being appointed as the project scientist for the Gemini project, leading to his move to the U.S. He explains having to learn and understand the US political system in relation to science, particularly the way astronomy is funded. He credits his time in Edinburgh with teaching him the importance of effective communication between engineers and scientists, which would prove crucial for his role as Gemini director and later projects. Mountain discusses his later role as director of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the early conversations on a next generation space telescope. He details his role as telescope scientist for the Webb telescope and his perspective on international space science partnerships. He reflects on the budget concerns and schedule delays surrounding the Webb telescope and the later working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Towards the end of the interview, Mountain discusses some of the science from JWST, his current role at AURA, and the future of astronomy.
In this interview, astronomer Massimo Stiavelli discusses his involvement with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. He recounts his early childhood growing up in Italy, higher education at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and his interest in elliptical galaxies. He reflects on his time as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University, his time at the European Southern Observatory, and his role deriving signs from the Hubble Space Telescope’s aberrated data. Stiavelli discusses his position with the European Space Agency in Baltimore, along with the initial developments of the Next Generation Space Telescope. He also offers his perception on the Space Telescope Science Institute and the scientists working there. He recalls his early involvement with the NGST’s Science Working Group, his role as Project Scientist, and his perspective on the growing schedule and budget delays that led to Congressional hearings. Stiavelli also recalls the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the final stages of Webb’s development, the launch, and its current operation. The interview concludes with an overview of Stiavelli’s views on the future of cosmology and the impact of JWST.
Interview with Anne Kinney, Deputy Center Director of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Kinney recounts her childhood in Wisconsin and her early interests in science. She describes her undergraduate experience at the University of Wisconsin where she pursued degrees in physics and astronomy. Kinney discusses her time in Denmark at the Niels Bohr Institute before completing her graduate work at NYU relating to the International Ultraviolet Explorer. She explains the opportunities leading to her postdoctoral appointment at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore where she focused on obtaining optical data and near-infrared data to understand spectral energy distribution for quasars and blazars. Kinney discusses her work on the aberrated Hubble Telescope and her new job at NASA Headquarters where she became head of Origins before she was transferred to Goddard where she became division direct of the Planetary Division. She describes Goddard’s efforts to promote diversity and she describes her subsequent position as chief scientist at Keck Observatory before returning to Washington to join the National Science Foundation to be head of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Kinney provides a broad view of the NSF budgetary environment, and she explains the circumstances that led her back to NASA to her current work. She describes where Goddard fits into NASA’s overall mission and she explains her interest in promoting NASA in an educational framework to children. At the end of the interview, Kinney conveys her excitement about the James Webb Telescope and why she is committed to ensuring that NASA is a driver behind the broader effort to make astronomy and physics more diverse.
Interview with Adam Riess, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins, and Distinguished Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Riess explains the value of his dual affiliation and his focus on calibrating the Hubble Telescope for cosmological experiments. He recounts his childhood in New Jersey and the “boot camp” style of physics education he received at MIT. Riess explains his decision to go to Harvard for his graduate work, where Bob Kirshner advised his thesis research on supernovae, while he worked closely with Bill Press on data analysis. He describes his field work at Mount Hopkins in Arizona and his use of the early internet to collect and share data, and he explains what we did not previously understand about supernovae and how that prevented an earlier understanding that the universe’s expansion is accelerating. Riess describes working closely with Brian Schmidt and Nick Suntzeff and how the High-Z team came together, and he explains the decision to use the term “accelerating” to describe the findings from the research. He describes being unprepared for the enormous reaction the High-Z team received after it published its findings, and he explains the opportunities that led to his staff appointment at Space Telescope. Riess narrates his sense of when the “buzz” for the Nobel Prize started and he related the sense of bedlam when the announcement was made and his immediate plan to make this a recognition for the entire High-Z team. He explains how the world of dark energy research has opened up since the discovery and he surveys advances in instrumentation that have propelled the field forward in the last twenty years. At the end of the interview, Riess discusses his current focus on the Hubble tension, he conveys his excitement for the launch of the James Webb Telescope, and he shares that he can’t wait to meet students that he has never seen in person after a year of pandemic-mandated virtual interactions.
In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Meg Urry, Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Yale University, and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. She recounts her childhood in Indiana and then in Boston and she discusses her family background and what she gained as a result of having a father who was a professor of chemistry. Urry describes her undergraduate experience at Tufts, where she developed her career interests in physics, and she describes a formative summer working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where she became the first person to identify the first gravitational lens source of a background quasar. Urry discusses the circumstances leading to her graduate work at Johns Hopkins, where she conducted research with Art Davidsen, and she explains how she got her first job at the Goddard Space Flight Center where she spent a majority of her time during graduate school. She describes her research with Richard Mushotzky on blazars, and she explains some of the cultural differences between physics, which she felt was overly hierarchical and astronomy, which was more laid back and which employed many more women. Urry discusses her postdoctoral research on Seyfert galaxy spectra at MIT with Claude Canizares, who at the time was building the Chandra X-ray Observatory. She describes her second postdoctoral position at the Space Telescope Science Institute where she focused on the unification of radio-loud AGN, and she describes the decisions that led to her first full-time job at Space Telescope. She describes the high-pressure work environment at Space Telescope, and some of the structural disadvantages she experienced as a woman. Urry reflects on some of the shifting distinctions in the terms astronomy and astrophysics, and she explains the centrality of supermassive black holes during her tenure at Space Telescope. Urry recounts her decision to join the physics faculty at Yale, and she describes her excitement at the prospect of teaching in an academic environment. She describes how she maintained her collaborations with her former colleagues associates with the Hubble telescope. Urry describes tenure as chair of the department, and she reflects on her efforts to encourage a culture of greater diversity and inclusivity in the department, where she championed the recognition and promotion of many women and people of color, and she shares her ideas on how the physics community can work collectively to continue to advance this work. Urry discusses her work as president of the American Astronomical Society, and she reflects on the lessons of perseverance she learned from her father. At the end of the interview, Urry provides an overview of the current state of research on supermassive black holes, and she describes her work conveying scientific concepts to a broader audience. At the end of the interview, Urry explains the specific threats that science faces in a culture of eroding trust in public institutions.
