Christopher Martin
Christopher Martin
Research Interests: Galaxy Evolution, Intergalactic Medium, and Experimental Astrophysics
Overview
Christopher Martin has 45 years of experience in Space UV and ground-based experimental astrophysics. He has led multiple successful sounding rocket, balloon, Shuttle, and ground-based experiments. He led the successful UV survey Explorer mission the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). Recently he has been developing experimental and observational techniques for detecting and mapping emission from the Inter-galactic Medium. These include Faint Intergalactic Medium Redshifted BALLoon (FIREBALL, the first UV integral field and multi-object spectrograph), which had its first successful science flight in June, 2009, and the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager (PCWI) and the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), which is obtaining the first images of the Cosmic Web at redshift ∼2-3. FIREBALL is a pathfinder for a new mission, a Super-pressure STABLE Cosmic Web Imager (SSCWI), supported by the Brinson Exploration Hub, that offers theopportunity to image
Selected Awards
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, 2014
- NASA Group Achievement Award, GALEX Operations Team, 2008
- NASA Group Achievement Award, Far UV Detector Recovery Team, 2008
- NASA Public Service Medal, Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission Science Achievement, 2005
- NASA Public Service Medal, Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission Development 2004
- NASA Group Achievement Award, GALEX Project Group, 2004.
- Uhl Prize for Outstanding Research in Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, 1985.
Selected Awards
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, 2014
- NASA Group Achievement Award, GALEX Operations Team, 2008
- NASA Group Achievement Award, Far UV Detector Recovery Team, 2008
- NASA Public Service Medal, Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission Science Achievement, 2005
- NASA Public Service Medal, Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission Development 2004
- NASA Group Achievement Award, GALEX Project Group, 2004.
- Uhl Prize for Outstanding Research in Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, 1985.
Caltech Affiliations
- Director, Caltech Optical Observatories (COO), 2023-present
Caltech Affiliations
- Director, Caltech Optical Observatories (COO), 2023-present