John C. Mather

2006 Nobel Prize in Physics and Senior Astrophysicist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. John C. Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the Astrophysics Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. Until 2023, he was Senior Project Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched Dec. 25, 2021. The Webb extends the scientific discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope to look farther out in space and farther back in time, answering questions ranging from the formation of the first stars, galaxies and black holes, to the formation of new stars and planets today.
Following the JWST, Mather develops concepts for hybrid observatories, combining telescopes on the ground with orbiting satellites. 
He grew up in rural New Jersey on a research farm where his father studied dairy cows. He attended public schools, received a bachelor's degree in physics from Swarthmore College and his doctorate in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. That inspired the COBE satellite and a Nobel Prize.