Peter R. McCullough (; born August 20, 1964) is an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, founder of the

XO Project The XO Project is an international team of amateur and professional astronomers tasked with identifying extrasolar planets. They are led by Peter R. McCullough of the Space Telescope Science Institute. It is primarily funded by NASA's Origins Pro ...

and discoverer of extrasolar transiting planets, such as

XO-1b XO-1b is an extrasolar planet approximately 536 light-years away from Earth. The planet XO-1b is named Negoiu. The name was selected in the NameExoWorlds campaign by Romania, during the 100th anniversary of the IAU. Negoiu is the second highes ...

. Soon after the U.S. declassification of the laser beacon adaptive optics technique in 1991, he identified dusty disks around newborn stars, later referred to as proplyds, in observations of the

Orion Nebula The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula in the Milky Way situated south of Orion's Belt in the Orion (constellation), constellation of Orion, and is known as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion. It ...

made with the

Starfire Optical Range Starfire Optical Range (SOR - Pronounced as an initialism) is a United States Air Force research laboratory on the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its primary duty, according to the official website, is to "develop and demons ...

. Astronomers John Gaustad, McCullough, and David Van Buren with engineer Wayne Rosing mapped the entire southern sky in the hydrogen alpha transition with sufficient sensitivity for decontamination of the Milky Way from the cosmic microwave background. McCullough's modification to the

Stromgren sphere Stromgren, Strömgren or Strømgren is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bengt Strömgren (1908–1947), Danish astronomer * Elis Strömgren (1870–1947), Swedish-Danish astronomer * Jo Strømgren (born 1970), Norwegian choreog ...

model often produces more realistic results than the original.

Biography

Education

McCullough attended public primary school in Massachusetts and

Athens Drive High School Athens Drive Magnet High School, formerly known as Athens Drive High School, is a secondary Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County public high school in southwestern Raleigh, North Carolina, that serves grades 9–12. As of 2023–2024 ...

in North Carolina. In summers between his undergraduate years, he interned at the Wind River

National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions an ...

, the

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

CA police department,

Weyerhauser The Weyerhaeuser Company ( ) is an American timberland company which owns nearly of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company has manufactured wood products for over a c ...

, and the

National Radio Astronomy Observatory The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radi ...

Very Large Array The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory in the southwestern United States built in the 1970s. It lies in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena, Ne ...

. McCullough received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1986 from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. At the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, he earned a PhD in astrophysics in 1993.

Employment

McCullough was a Hubble postdoctoral fellow, and then an assistant professor in the Astronomy Department of the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. Since 2002 he has been employed by the

Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for the ...

. He also works on the science team of the

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on ...

. In 2009-2010 he was a visiting scientist at the

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution, concentrating on Astrophysics, astrophysical studies including Galactic astronomy, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, Sun, solar ...

and the

Institut d'astrophysique de Paris The Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (translated: Paris Institute of Astrophysics) is a research institute in Paris, France. The Institute is part of the Sorbonne University and is associated with the CNRS Centre national de la recherche scientif ...

Awards and fellowships

McCullough has received numerous awards throughout his career. His undergraduate education was supported entirely by merit scholarships.

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 ...

granted him a graduate student researcher award and a

Hubble postdoctoral fellowship The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for the ...

in 1993. He was a recipient of the

Sloan Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

. In recognition of his university teaching and research, the

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

granted him a

CAREER award The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

and the

Research Corporation Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) is an organization in the United States devoted to the advancement of science, funding research projects in the physical sciences. Since 1912, Research Corporation for Science Advancement has id ...

selected him as a Cottrell Scholar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccullough, Peter R. 1964 births Living people American astronomers Discoverers of exoplanets Athens Drive High School alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Hubble Fellows

Biography

Education

Employment

Awards and fellowships

See also

References