Edward L. Wright – WISE Principal Investigator - UCLA
Ned Wright grew up in Fairfax County, VA on land once owned by George Washington. He went off to Harvard for college, majoring in physics. After Harvard Ned went to the Physics Department at MIT and got involved in planning and designing the COsmic Background Explorer (COBE) and in using the the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO). Seeking clearer skies he went to UCLA starting full time in 1982.

When the SIRTF (now Spitzer) science working group was selected in 1984, Wright was one of the two interdisciplinary scientists chosen. In 1998 Ned Wright and Peter Eisenhardt got together to setup a proposal team for what was then called the Next Generation Sky Survey (NGSS). When the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) became JWST, and TRW became NGST, NASA directed NGSS to choose a new name and WISE was born. [read full bio]

Andrew Blain– Caltech
Andrew Blain was born in Liverpool in the UK, and attended Cambridge University. He moved to Caltech in 2001, and has been involved with the development of WISE as a tool for studying the way the galaxies in the Universe formed and evolved, and studying the evolution and the development of the stars and gas within.

Using observations at the wavelengths where WISE will operate, some of the most powerful galaxies can be identified. These are the galaxies in which stars are forming most rapidly, and they should provide information about the most dramatic phases of the Universe's history. The trigger for these events, whether mergers with immediate neighbors, or effects due to their environments on wider scales, should shed light on the way in which the cores of galaxies form.

Other interests include gravitational lensing, models of Non-scientific interests include food, chasing kids born in 2004 & 2006 and very occasionally riding a bike further than the office. At some point he'll learn to ski and fly. Better for the safety of those below, while he does ski badly, he's not been trying to fly.

Dominic Benford– NASA/GSFC
Dr. Benford is an Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His research interests are in extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology and in infrared instrumentation development. He is the Deputy PI of the Destiny mission concept for JDEM, which seeks to characterize dark energy and its evolution over cosmic time. Dr. Benford is the Instrument Scientist for the SOFIA/SAFIRE far-infrared spectrometer. He has pursued research in continuum detectors for ground-based submillimeter observations, near-Terahertz heterodyne receiver technology, submillimeter observations of star forming regions and ultraluminous galaxies, and cryogenic instrumentation systems for space observatories. He has led and participated in several mission concept studies, including the SAFIR Vision Mission and the SPIRIT Origins Probe. Dr. Benford received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 1999 on the topic of "Broadband Submillimeter Instrumentation for the Detection of Distant Galaxies."

Martin Cohen– MIRA
Martin Cohen's ongoing research areas include planetary nebulae, the interstellar medium, late stellar evolution, Galactic structure, and ultracompact HII regions. He has 38 years of identification, spectroscopy and analysis of sources found in IR surveys; and 17 years of work in absolute IR calibration of ground-based, airborne, and space-based sensors. He has worked for many astronomical satellites: as a Science Team member of Japan's Infrared Telescope in Space; the US Midcourse Space Experiment's (MSX) Celestial Backgrounds Team; the European Space Agency's (ESA) designated US Calibration Advisor to its Infrared Space Observatory (ISO); as a Consultant to the UK's ISO Long Wavelength Spectrometer; worked on absolute calibrator stars for Spitzer's IRAC and IRS instruments; a member of the SAGE and GLIMPSE Spitzer Legacy teams.

In addition to WISE, he is a Science Team Member of Japan's AKARI mission, the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit Planetary Nebula Consortium, the Australia Telescope National Facility's 20GHz survey, and the HIGAL program of ESA's Herschel spacecraft. He is also an ongoing member of NASA's Astrobiology Institute through the Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

Roc Cutri – Caltech
Dr. Cutri, IPAC Deputy Executive Director, was the data processing lead scientist for the Two-micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) project which involved about two dozen staff members from IPAC, for which he won the 2007 James Craig Watson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.



Peter Eisenhardt - JPL

T. Nick Gautier - JPL

Thomas Jarrett– Caltech
Dr. Jarrett, a native Californian, joined the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) in 1991 after completing his BA in Physics from Pomona College and PhD in astrophysics from the University of Massachusetts. During his tenure at IPAC, Jarrett has performed hardware instrumentation, software engineering, and scientific research across a wide range of fields in astronomy. He helped to develop a near-infrared camera system for the Hale 200" Telescope of the Palomar Observatory, conducting research on young stellar objects, star formation regions and nearby galaxies. In 1994 he joined the Two-micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and was charged with detecting, characterizing and cataloging extended sources. Using the 2MASS 'galaxy' catalogs, Jarrett has conducted research in the large scale structure that comprises the local universe. In 2003, he then joined the Spitzer Legacy teams "SINGS" and "SWIRE", focusing his research on star formation in low-redshift galaxies. Participating in and/or leading a number of Spitzer GO projects, Jarrett has studied interacting galaxies (notably the "Tadpole Galaxy"), clusters and large scale structure (notably the "Great Attractor"), and the most massive HI galaxy in the local universe (aka "The Coelacanth Galaxy"). Since 1999, Jarrett has also served in a teaching role as an adjunct professor at Pomona College, creating the course "Life in the Universe", while also serving as an adviser to senior undergraduate students.

He is currently the co-adviser to a University of Cape Town (RSA) PhD student who is now (2008) completing her dissertation. Jarrett is a participating member of the Spitzer IRAC Instrument Science Team, and is the cognizant software engineer for the WISE aperture photometry system. He is also a member of the Anglo-Australian Observatory Users Committee, and frequently travels to his favorite country Australia to work with his colleagues 'down under'.

J. Davy Kirkpatrick - IPAC/Caltech
Davy Kirkpatrick grew up on a dairy and tobacco farm in Hendersonville, Tennessee and studied at Vanderbilt University and the University of Arizona. His close association with flatulent Guernseys prepared him well for a study of methane-bearing brown dwarfs, which is now his specialty. Brown dwarfs are the low-mass products of star formation. They lack a sustainable energy source and slowly fade with time, making them quite difficult to detect. It wasn't until the advent of all-sky surveys mapping infrared radiation ("heat") that the first brown dwarfs were uncovered. It is now believed that they may be as numerous as the stars themselves.

Using the WISE data, Dr. Kirkpatrick hopes to determine this space density of brown dwarfs and to find the closest brown dwarf to the Sun, which may be closer to the Sun than the nearest hydrogen-burning star (Proxima Centauri) or may even be a companion to the Sun itself. Kirkpatrick has been at Caltech since 1994, where he became a team member on WISE's infrared predecessor, the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Kirkpatrick has recently written articles on low-mass stars and brown dwarfs for the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics and for the Princeton University Press textbook Stellar Spectral Classification.

David Leisawitz - GSFC
Dave Leisawitz was born in Pottsville, PA, a coal-mining town potentially famous for hosting the oldest brewery in the nation. He wasn’t a big beer consumer when he left town at the age of 5 and shortly thereafter embarked on the path that led him to become WISE Mission Scientist. Along the way, Dr. Leisawitz picked up a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Texas at Austin, with Dr. Frank Bash as advisor, and then moved to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a National Research Council postdoc to analyze data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) with Dr. Michael Hauser. After a brief stint on the research faculty at Penn State, Dave returned to Goddard as a civil servant, initially to develop and manage the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) guest investigator program. Along the way, he became COBE Deputy Project Scientist and adopted Dr. John Mather as a mentor. Working with John and others, including Dr. Ned Wright, Dave developed concepts for far-infrared interferometers. He is Principal Investigator for the Wide-field Imaging Interferometry Testbed, and served as PI for a study of the Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT) mission concept and as Goddard study lead for the Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure (SPECS), with Dr. Martin Harwit as PI. Dave mentors undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs who collaborate with him on interferometry and infrared astrophysics, and he enjoys devoting time to education and public outreach. In 2006, he became Chief of the Science Proposal Support Office at Goddard. He has served on three temporary assignments to NASA Headquarters, most recently as Acting Assistant Director for Policy and Planning in the Astrophysics Division. In terms of research, Dave is most keenly interested in the formation of planets and the development of habitable conditions in planetary systems. In the lab, he is developing an interferometric technique that will enable high angular resolution imaging and spectroscopy over a wide field of view for future space-based far-infrared observatories.

Carol Lonsdale - Caltech

John Mather - NASA/GSFC

Ian McLean - UCLA

Dr. Méndez also has extensive previous experience in education and public outreach activities including the following: Instructor for UC Berkeley’s Astronomy Department, teaching classes in introductory astronomy for undergraduates and leading education seminars for new graduate student instructors; Instructor of students in grades 9-12 for UC Berkeley’s Academic Talent Development Program, and a grades 4-6 classroom volunteer in ASP’s project ASTRO since 1998 through the present. As the WISE Deputy E/PO Lead, Dr. Méndez will manage, oversee, and participate in all aspects of the WISE E/PO program. He will also take leading roles in the teacher professional development, curriculum development, Asteroids@home, and all Public Outreach program elements for WISE E/PO.

Deborah Padgett - Caltech

Michael Skrutskie - University of Virginia

Russell Walker - MIRA
Russ Walker’s primary scientific interest is the study of small bodies in the Solar System. He brings a diverse background in infrared astronomy to WISE. He did his undergraduate and masters work in physics, small particle scattering, and molecular spectroscopy at the Ohio State University, and completed a doctorate in astronomy at Harvard University, where he was co-author of the first paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal on the infrared detectability of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

Russ has designed and built infrared and optical photometers, interferometers for Fourier transform spectroscopy, and liquid helium cooled infrared telescopes for operation in space. His passion has been performing infrared all-sky surveys and, more recently, the study and exploration of asteroids, comets, and cometary debris trails. He was awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement for his work as Telescope Scientist for the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), and his analysis of the IRAS comet data. He was Co-Investigator on the MSX Satellite Celestial Team responsible for planning and executing observations of the zodiacal cloud and minor bodies within the Solar System. He was also a member of the MSX/SPIRIT III performance assessment team responsible for the calibration of the MSX infrared observations. Russ is presently a research astronomer at the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy (MIRA) where he continues to pursue his space astronomy interests as a member of the science team for WISE, the next generation infrared sky survey.

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