George Smoot
Astrophysicist at the University of California Berkeley (USA), Professor Smoot won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on COBE with John C. Mather that led to the measurement of the anisotropy and blackbody form of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He is a senior scientist at LBL and, since 2010, a professor of […]
Victor Gorbatko
Viktor Vasilyevich Gorbatko (December 3, 1934 – May 17, 2017) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 7, Soyuz 24, and Soyuz 37 missions. Viktor’s interest in becoming a pilot was sparked during the conflict between the Soviets and the Nazis. His siblings often told him stories of brave pilots and their adventures […]
Jill Tarter
Astrophysicist and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) pioneer. Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the California Academy of Sciences. She was named one of the 100 most influential people […]
Sergei Zhukov
Sergei Zhukov is Executive Director of the Space Technologies & Telecommunications Cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation and a Member of Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. From Dzhezkazgan, in Kazakhstan (now the landing site for Soyuz landing modules), Zhukov graduated from Bauman Moscow State Technical University and did post-graduate work on gas core nuclear installations for space […]
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. His mother, Marion Moon, was the daughter of an Army Chaplain and his father Edwin Eugene Aldrin was an aviation pioneer. Buzz graduated one year early from Montclair High School and he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, graduating third in his class with a […]
Joseph Silk
Joseph Silk holds the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford (UK) and is Director of the Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Professor Silk has over 500 publications, of which 20 have been published in Natureand 11 in Science. A graduate of Harvard University, Professor Silk has given more than two […]
Claude Nicollier
Claude Nicollier studied Physics at the University of Lausanne and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1970. He then worked as a graduate scientist from 1970 to 1973 at the Institute of Astronomy at the University and at the Geneva Observatory before obtaining a Master of Science degree in Astrophysics from the University of Geneva in 1975. Nicollier has spent over […]
Yuri Baturin
Yuri Baturin graduated at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1980 he also graduated at the Law Institute of Moscow State University, where he also obtained a doctorate in laws. A former politician, he has been Head of National Security and has served on the National Defence Council. In 1997 he was selected […]
Robert Williams
Professor Robert Williams, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), is President of the International Astronomical Union. (IAU). He is an STScI Distinguished Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Physics and Astronomy Department in Baltimore. Professor Williams served as Hubble STScI Director from 1993 until 1998, before which he had […]
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford’s Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and […]