About

Christopher J. Burrows

Chris read mathematics at Cambridge (double first, Open Scholarship) and took a PhD there in high-energy physics in 1980. After four years directing space studies at Logica UK, including the Hipparcos accuracy simulation, he joined the European Space Agency's Astrophysics Division in 1984 and was posted to the Space Telescope Science Institute as Hubble Telescope Scientist and WFPC2 Instrument Scientist.

He diagnosed Hubble's spherical aberration, helped design and commission the cameras that corrected it, and used them for studies of circumstellar disks and SN 1987A. He went on to coronagraph design for ACS and Codex, high-contrast testbed work for TPF, JWST NIRCam alignment, and, since 2011, reviews of NASA mission proposals. He now works on the EUV Solar Telescope.

Awards

NASA Public Service Medal, 1994
NASA Public Service Medal, 1992
AURA annual award, 1991

Committees

HST Strategy Panel, 1990–91
WFPC2 Investigation Definition Team, 1991–
HST Advanced Camera IDT, 1992–
ESA NGST Study Team, 1998–99
TPF Science Working Group, 2002–04; TPF STDT, 2004–
NASA peer review committees, 1992–2003; major NASA reviews, 2008–

Observing

NASA IRTF, Mauna Kea
Siding Spring Observatory, Australia
Las Campanas Observatory, Chile
ESO 3.6 m and 2.2 m telescopes, La Silla, Chile
Hubble Space Telescope: WFPC2 and ACS programmes

Education

Ph.D., High Energy Physics, Cambridge, 1980
Mathematics Tripos, Cambridge, 1975–77

Contact

chris@burrows.us.com