Marc Kuchner (born August 7, 1972) is an American astrophysicist, and the Citizen Science Officer at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

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. He is known for his work on citizen science, and imaging of disks and exoplanets. Together with Wesley Traub, he invented the band-limited

coronagraph A coronagraph is a telescopic attachment designed to block out the direct light from a star or other bright object so that nearby objects – which otherwise would be hidden in the object's bright glare – can be resolved. Most coronagr ...

, used on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), originally designed for the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) telescope. He is also known for his novel supercomputer models of planet-disk interactions and for developing the ideas of

ocean planet An ocean world, ocean planet or water world is a type of planet or natural satellite that contains a substantial amount of water in the form of oceans, as part of its hydrosphere, either beneath the planetary surface, surface, as subsurface ...

s, carbon planets, and helium planets. Kuchner appears as an expert commentator in the National Geographic television show "Alien Earths" and frequently answers the "Ask Astro" questions in Astronomy Magazine. Kuchner helped found several

citizen science The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...

projects, including Disk Detective and Backyard Worlds.

Background

Kuchner was born in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada. He received his bachelor's degree in physics from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1994 and his Ph.D. in astronomy from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2000. His doctoral thesis advisor was Michael E. Brown. After he earned his Ph.D., Kuchner studied at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian as a Michelson Fellow, and then at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

as a Hubble Fellow. Kuchner's parents are neurosurgeon Eugene Kuchner and psychologist Joan Kuchner. His wife is epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo.

''Marketing for Scientists''

Kuchner is the author of a book, ''Marketing for Scientists: How to Shine in Tough Times'' (2011,

Island Press Island Press is a nonprofit, environmental publisher based in Washington, D.C., United States, that specializes in natural history, ecology, conservation, and the built environment. Established in 1978, Island Press generates about half of its ...

). The book provides career and communication advice for scientists using the language of marketing, with chapters on "business", "how to sell something," "branding" and so on. This approach struck some reviewers as cynical about human nature. But readers from a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines praised the book's unique angle and breadth of research.

Ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

described it as "a must-read for ecologists and, indeed, for all scientists, mathematicians, and engineers at all career stages." Astrophysicist

Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysics, astrophysicist, author, and science communication, science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia Univ ...

called it, "the first of its kind".

''Cosmic Collisions''

Kuchner is the author of a series of books for children about astrophysics. The first is ''Cosmic Collisions: Asteroid vs. Comet'' (2024, MIT Kids Press).

Prizes

References

External links

www.marckuchner.com

www.diskdetective.org
* NASA webpage. http://eud.gsfc.nasa.gov/Marc.Kuchner/home.html
Marketing For Scientists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuchner, Marc 1972 births Living people American astronomers NASA astrophysicists Goddard Space Flight Center Harvard University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Scientists from Montreal