In this interview, astronomer Peter Jakobsen discusses his involvement with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes during his life-long career at the European Space Agency (ESA). He recounts his early childhood growing up in Cincinnati and later returning to his hometown in Denmark, where he attended the University of Copenhagen. He reflects on his time at the Laboratoire d’Astronomie Spatiale in Marseille during his Master’s degree and his time at Berkeley working in the Space Astrophysics Group led by Stu Bowyer. Jakobsen discusses his job as Project Scientist for the European involvement in the Hubble Space Telescope, the development of ESA’s Faint Object Camera, and the discovery of the spherical aberration. He details his role in the development of COSTAR and Hubble’s repair missions. Jakobsen recalls being skeptical of the initial talks for the Next Generation Space Telescope, but later taking on a key role for the European side of the project. He also recalls the competition between the contractors working on the initial design phase for NIRSpec. Jakobsen gives an account of his last years at ESA and the conditions that led to his retirement from the agency in 2011. He gives his perspective on Webb’s launch and reflects on the budget and schedule delay concerns. He discusses his post-retirement technical work and the guaranteed observing time program for JWST. Towards the end of the interview, Jakobsen describes his current focus with NIRSpec and his reflections on 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.
