Christopher David Impey (born 25 January 1956) is a British

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either o ...

, educator, and author. He has been a faculty member at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

since 1986. Impey has done research on

observational cosmology Observational cosmology is the study of the structure, the evolution and the origin of the universe through observation, using instruments such as telescopes and cosmic ray detectors. Early observations The science of physical cosmology as it is ...

, in particular

low surface brightness galaxies A low-surface-brightness galaxy, or LSB galaxy, is a diffuse galaxy with a surface brightness that, when viewed from Earth, is at least one magnitude lower than the ambient night sky. Most LSBs are dwarf galaxies, and most of their baryonic matt ...

, the

intergalactic medium Intergalactic may refer to: * "Intergalactic" (song), a song by the Beastie Boys * ''Intergalactic'' (TV series), a 2021 UK science fiction TV series * Intergalactic space * Intergalactic travel, travel between galaxies in science fiction and ...

, and surveys of

active galaxies An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pro ...

and

quasars A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass ranging ...

. As an educator, he has pioneered the use of

instructional technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refers ...

for teaching science to undergraduate

non-science A non-science is an area of study that is not scientific, especially one that is not a natural science or a social science that is an object of scientific inquiry. In this model, history, art, and religion are all examples of non-sciences. Cla ...

majors. He has written many technical articles and a series of popular science books including '' The Living Cosmos'', ''

How It Began ''How It Began: A Time Traveler’s Guide to the Universe '' is a non-fiction book by the astronomer Chris Impey that discusses the history of the universe, with chapters ranging from the proximate universe to within an iota of the Big Bang. It w ...

'', ''How It Ends: From You to the Universe'', ''Dreams of Other Worlds'', and ''Humble Before the Void''. He served as Vice-President of the American Astronomical Society, he is a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He serves on the Advisory Council of

METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) METI International, known simply as METI, is a non-profit research organization that creates and transmits interstellar messages to attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations. In July 2015, the papers to form METI were filed by i ...

Biography

Impey was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, and spent his childhood mostly in New York and London, attending 11 schools. He got a 1st class honours BSc in Physics at

Imperial College of Science and Technology Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cul ...

, part of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

, in 1977. After an internship working on a neutrino calorimeter at CERN under

Jack Steinberger Jack Steinberger (born Hans Jakob Steinberger; May 25, 1921December 12, 2020) was a German-born American physicist noted for his work with neutrinos, the subatomic particles considered to be elementary constituents of matter. He was a recipient ...

, he went to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

for graduate school in astronomy. He earned a PhD under the supervision of Peter Brand and Ray Wolstencroft in 1981. He worked at the Institute for Astronomy at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

from 1981 to 1983 as a UK Science Research Council/NATO Fellow, then at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

from 1983 to 1986 as a Weingart Fellow. Impey has been on the faculty of the Department of Astronomy/

Steward Observatory Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were f ...

at the

since 1986, since 2000 as a University Distinguished Professor. He is Deputy Department Head in charge of academic programs, leading the nation's largest undergraduate astronomy majors program, its second largest astronomy PhD program, and one of the largest programs to teach astronomy to non-science majors.

Research

Working mostly in the fields of

extragalactic astronomy Extragalactic astronomy is the branch of astronomy concerned with objects outside the Milky Way galaxy. In other words, it is the study of all astronomical objects which are not covered by galactic astronomy. The closest objects in extragalactic ...

and

, Impey has over 170 refereed publications and 70 published conference proceedings. His early work was on the sub-class of

active galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not prod ...

called

BL Lac object A BL Lacertae object or BL Lac object is a type of active galactic nucleus (AGN) or a galaxy with such an AGN, named after its prototype, BL Lacertae. In contrast to other types of active galactic nuclei, BL Lacs are characterized by rapid and ...

s, now thought to be highly luminous and variable extragalactic sources where our sightline looks nearly down the spin axis of a

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical obj ...

emitting twin relativistic jets. In the 1980s he was a heavy user of the first wave of large optical telescopes on

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea ( or ; ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaii and second-highest peak of an island on Earth. The peak i ...

in Hawaii. As a postdoc at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

he worked with Greg Bothun at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

on the properties of dim and diffuse stellar systems that tend to be missing from most galaxy surveys. Working with the noted Australian astrophotographer

David Malin David Frederick Malin (born 28 March 1941) is a British-Australian astronomer and photographer. He is principally known for his spectacular colour images of astronomical objects. A galaxy is named after him, Malin 1, which he discovered in ...

, they discovered the largest spiral galaxy known, dubbed

Malin 1 __NOTOC__ Malin 1 is a giant low surface brightness (LSB) spiral galaxy. It is located away in the constellation Coma Berenices, near the North Galactic Pole. , it is the largest known spiral galaxy, with an approximate diameter of , thus over ...

. He also continued his thesis work on BL Lac objects, using a travelling

polarimeter A polarimeter is a scientific instrument used to measure the angle of rotation caused by passing polarized light through an optically active substance.Kitt Peak in Arizona, Palomar in California, Las Campanas and

Cerro Tololo The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) is an astronomical observatory located on Cerro Tololo in the Coquimbo Region of northern Chile, with additional facilities located on Cerro Pachón about to the southeast. It is approximately ...

in Chile,

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire ( ...

in South Africa, and the

Special Astrophysical Observatory The Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science (SAO RAS; russian: Специальная Астрофизическая Обсерватория) is an astronomical observatory, set up in 1966 in the USSR, and now operat ...

in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

region of Russia. He was a heavy early user of the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ver ...

, getting time in each of the first eight cycles of observation. At

in the 1990s, he studied the

using multiple

to probe the three dimensional structure of the hot, diffuse gas in galaxies, which contains as many

baryons In particle physics, a baryon is a type of composite subatomic particle which contains an odd number of valence quarks (at least 3). Baryons belong to the hadron family of particles; hadrons are composed of quarks. Baryons are also classifie ...

as the sum of all the stars in the universe. He also studied

gravitational lensing A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant light source and an observer that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels toward the observer. This effect is known ...

using the exquisite image quality and stability of the HST. Over the past decade, he has been a major participant of the

Cosmic Evolution Survey The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Project to survey a two square degree equatorial field with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The largest survey ever undertaken by HST, the project incorpora ...

(COSMOS), led by Nick Scoville at Caltech. He led the spectroscopic follow-up of active galaxies and quasars selected by their

X-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...

emission, with a goal of charting the growth and fuelling rate of the massive

black holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can defo ...

that are now known to exist in every galaxy. Impey's research has been supported by over $20 million in grants from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

and the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

Education

Impey is a pioneer in the use of

in the classroom. He was the lead author of the

plan for instructional computing in the 1990s and he gave the first invited education talk at an American Astronomical Society meeting. He has been on the editorial boards of the ''Astronomy Education Review'' and the ''Encyclopedia of the Cosmos'', and served on the board of directors of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He is on the International Executive Committee of the

Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena Inspiration, inspire, or inspired often refers to: * Artistic inspiration, sudden creativity in artistic production * Biblical inspiration, the doctrine in Judeo-Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible * Creative inspir ...

series of meetings. He has written over 40 articles on education, pedagogy, and science literacy. He is the winner of seven teaching awards at the University of Arizona and he has taught over 5000 students, mostly in introductory astronomy classes for non-science majors. He taught part of an

astrobiology Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investi ...

class in the 3D virtual world called

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...

, and more recently he has taught a

massive open online course A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, ma ...

(MOOC) to over 2000 people using the

Udemy Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. As of November 2022, the platform has more than 57 million students, 213,000 courses, and 74,000 ins ...

platform. Impey is the creator of the web sit
Teach Astronomy
which has gone from peak traffic of 100 visitors a day after its launch in 2012 to 600–700 visitors a day one year later. Teach Astronomy has a full online textbook, over a thousand short video clips, and it also aggregates articles from

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...

, nearly 10,000 astronomical images and over a thousand podcasts. Impey enjoys conveying the excitement of astronomy to general audiences. Several times he has been an eclipse cruise lecturer, and since 2000 he has been a Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer and a Smithsonian Associates Lecturer. In 2007, he was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. He has given the Cave lecture at the

University of Kingston , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

, the Benjamin Dean Lecture at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 18 ...

, a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

lecture in Tucson, and the Robinson Lecture at the

Armagh Observatory Armagh Observatory is an astronomical research institute in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are based at the observatory, studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy and Earth's climate. In 2018, Armagh Obs ...

in Northern Ireland. He gives about twenty public talks a year, to audiences as diverse as kindergartners, NASA engineers, and

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

monks. In 2014, he was named a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, f ...

Professor, and awarded $1 million to improve undergraduate education.

Writing

Impey has written a number of popular science books, marked by their incorporation of cutting edge research, and the use of vignettes that place the reader in unfamiliar scenes. '' The Living Cosmos'' (2007) is a survey of the emerging field of

, published initially by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

and in 2011 republished by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambr ...

. Also with Cambridge University Press, he published a set of interviews with leading researchers in astrobiology, called ''

Talking About Life ''Talking About Life: Conversations on Astrobiology'' is a non-fiction book edited by astronomer Chris Impey that consists of interviews with three dozen leading experts on the subject of astrobiology. The subject matter ranges from the natu ...

'' (2010). He has also edited a set of books base on his long-time association with the

Vatican Observatory The Vatican Observatory () is an astronomical research and educational institution supported by the Holy See. Originally based in the Roman College of Rome, the Observatory is now headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy and operates a telescope a ...

astronomers. He has edited a book on astrobiology based on his long-time association with the

astronomers, called ''

Frontiers of Astrobiology Frontiers may refer to: * Frontier, areas near or beyond a boundary Arts and entertainment Music * ''Frontiers'' (Journey album), 1983 * ''Frontiers'' (Jermaine Jackson album), 1978 * ''Frontiers'' (Jesse Cook album), 2007 * ''Frontiers'' (P ...

''. He edited a book on the ethical and philosophical implications of the search for

life in the universe Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...

, called ''Encountering Life in the Universe''. With planetary scientist

Bill Hartmann William Kenneth Hartmann (born June 6, 1939) is a noted planetary scientist, artist, author, and writer. He was the first to convince the scientific mainstream that the Earth had once been hit by a planet sized body ( Theia), creating both the ...

, he wrote two introductory textbooks for college-level astronomy, ''The Cosmic Journey'' (1994), and ''The Universe Revealed'' (2000). On the subject of

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosophe ...

, he has written about the origin of the universe in ''

'' (2012) and about the long term fate of the universe in ''How It Ends'' (2010). With English professor Holly Henry, he has written a survey of the scientific and cultural impact of iconic NASA missions in ''Dreams of Other Worlds'' (2013). His most recent book, ''Humble Before the Void'' (2014), based on teaching cosmology to

Tibetan Buddhists Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

in India as part of th
Science for Monks
program. In 2013, he published his first novel, ''Shadow World''.

Awards

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

Slipher Award (1998) *

Distinguished Teaching Scholar (2002) *

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most nota ...

Arizona Professor of the Year (2002) *

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

Visiting Scholar (2006) * Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Richard H. Emmons Richard H. "Dick" Emmons (May 29, 1919 – June 29, 2005) was an American astronomer and engineer.American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

(2009) *

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

Stanley Kelley Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching (2011) *

Anglo-Australian Observatory The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the ...

Distinguished Visitor (2014) * Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor (2014) * Elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.

Books

* ''Astronomy: The Cosmic Journey'', with William Hartmann (1994) * ''International Symposium on Astrophysics Research and Science Education'', editor (1999) * ''The Universe Revealed'', with William Hartmann (2000) * ''Science and Theology: Ruminations on the Cosmos'', edited with Cathy Petry (2003) * ''International Symposium on Astrophysics Research and on the Dialogue Between Science and Religion'', edited with Cathy Petry (2003) * '' The Living Cosmos: Our Search for Life in the Universe'' (2007) * ''

: Conversations on Astrobiology'', editor (2010) * '' How It Ends: From You to the Universe'' (2010) * ''

: A Time Travelers Guide to the Universe'' (2012) * ''

'', edited with Jonathan Lunine and José Funes (2012) * ''Encountering Life in the Universe: Ethical Foundations and Social Implications of Astrobiology'', edited with Bill Stoeger and Anna Spitz (2013) * ''Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration'', with Holly Henry (2013) * '' Shadow World'', novel (2013) * ''Humble before the Void: A Western Astronomer, His Journey East, and a Remarkable Encounter between Western Science and Tibetan Buddhism'' (2014) * '' Beyond: Our Future in Space'' (2015) * ''Imagining Other Worlds: Explorations in Astronomy and Culture'', with Nicholas Campion (2018) * ''Einstein's Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, .

Articles

* The Living Cosmos: A Fabric That Binds Art and Science * Astronomy in the United States * Science Literacy in the United States * Big Questions Online * How It Began * American Scientist Nightstand * Chronicle of Higher Education * Teaching in Second Life * The End of the Universe * Coast to Coast Interview

References

External links

* * features Professor Impey {{DEFAULTSORT:Impey, Chris David 1956 births Living people British expatriate academics in the United States 20th-century British astronomers Alumni of Imperial College London University of Hawaiʻi alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Alumni of the University of Edinburgh University of Arizona faculty California Institute of Technology faculty 20th-century British writers 21st-century British writers People associated with CERN Fellows of the American Astronomical Society