Dr. John C. Mather led the science teams for the James Webb Space Telescope (1995-2023), the world’s most powerful telescope. From 1974 to 1994 he led the Cosmic Background Explorer science team, to measure the heat of the Big Bang to extraordinary precision. That work earned a Nobel Prize (Physics) in 2006. He is a theoretical instrument designer, looking for new ways to explore the universe with hybrid observatories: telescopes on the ground working with something in space. He is currently designing an orbiting starshade, the HOEE (Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets). John earned degrees at Swarthmore College (BA, 1968) and UC Berkeley (PhD, 1974), joined NASA GISS in New York City in 1974, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1976.
