Optical scientist · space telescopes
Christopher J. Burrows
Forty years designing, testing and diagnosing space telescopes and their instruments: Hubble's optics and cameras, coronagraphs for exoplanet imaging, and visible, X-ray and EUV telescopes. See all missions and instruments →
Cambridge and Logica
1975–1984Hubble Space Telescope
1984–2000- 1989–91
Hubble imaging performance
The OTA Handbook, PSF simulations, and the first account of on-orbit image quality.
- 1990
Diagnosing Hubble's spherical aberration
First to fit Hubble's first-light image with phase retrieval and find half a wave of spherical aberration.
- 1990s
Image sharpness
The PSF figure of merit that sets point-source signal-to-noise.
- 1990–94
WFPC2
Instrument Scientist for the camera that restored Hubble's vision.
- 1995–2002
Advanced Camera for Surveys
Invented the aberrated-beam coronagraph flown in ACS; IDT member.
Science with WFPC2
1994–1999Coronagraphy and exoplanet imaging
1980s–2005- 1986–96
Beta Pictoris
First multicolour images of the disk, and the Hubble discovery of its warp, the first sign of a planet.
- 1980s
ESO coronagraph
A coronagraph for circumstellar imaging at ESO.
- 1998
Codex
A coronagraph with a deformable mirror for Hubble, designed to image Jupiter-like planets.
- 2000–05
High Contrast Imaging Testbed
Better than 10⁻⁹ contrast on JPL's HCIT for TPF and Eclipse.
Missions, reviews and current work
2005–present- 2010
JWST NIRCam
Cryogenic alignment of NIRCam at Lockheed Martin.
- 2011–
NASA reviews
Science and technical-cost reviews of about 100 mission proposals.
- —
NICER
Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer.
- —
Wide-field X-ray telescope
Grazing-incidence optics optimised for imaging across a wide field.
- 2020s
EUV telescopes
Including the EUV Solar Telescope (EUVST).
- 1989–
Telescope image modelling
TIM, the end-to-end Hubble image simulator, and PSF modelling since.