John Mulchaey is an American astrophysicist working as the science deputy of the

Carnegie Institution for Science The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

and the director and Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair of the Carnegie Observatories, the Institution’s division for astronomy and astrophysics research.

Education

Mulchaey earned a Bachelor of Science in astrophysics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

Career

Mulchaey joined Carnegie as a postdoctoral fellow, after a graduate student fellowship at the

Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for th ...

. At the conclusion of his fellowship, he received a staff scientist appointment. Mulchaey was named director in 2015 after five years as associate director for academic affairs. Early in his career, Mulchaey led the research group that revolutionized our understanding of galaxy groups by revealing the existence of large amounts of dark matter in their compositions. More recently, he was part of the teams that discovered the first known binary quasar system and that first watched a fast radio burst in real time. Mulchaey oversees the Carnegie Observatories' main campus in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

, as well as the

Las Campanas Observatory Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS). It is in the southern Atacama Desert of Chile in the Atacama Region approximately northeast of the city of La Serena. ...

in Chile. In this role, he also serves on the board of the next-generation

Giant Magellan Telescope The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a ground-based extremely large telescope under construction, as part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP), . It will consist of seven 8.4 m (27.6 ft) diameter primary segments, that ...

, which is under construction at Carnegie's facility in Chile. Mulchaey is well regarded for his work on groups and clusters of galaxies—most of which, including our own Milky Way, exist collectively. These systems can be important laboratories for studying the processes that shape galaxies throughout their lifetimes, from their formation through their evolution. In addition to his research efforts, Mulchaey is involved in public outreach and educational activities, including the annual Carnegie Observatories Open House and the Astronomy Lecture Series at the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Mar ...

. In 2020, he received the Helios Award, part of the international Rotary Humanitarian STAR Awards program, for his achievements in scientific education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulchaey, John American astrophysicists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)