Marc Kuchner | |
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| Born | (1972-08-07)August 7, 1972 (age 53) |
| Education | Harvard University,California Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Detection ofexoplanetary systems, Theory of formation ofcircumstellar disks andplanets,citizen science andscience communication. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Planetary astronomy |
| Website | eud |
Marc Kuchner (born August 7, 1972) is an Americanastrophysicist, and the Citizen Science Officer atNASA Headquarters. He is known for his work oncitizen science, and imaging ofdisks andexoplanets. Together with Wesley Traub, he invented the band-limitedcoronagraph,[1] used on theJames Webb Space Telescope (JWST), originally designed for the proposedTerrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) telescope. He is also known for his novel supercomputer models of planet-disk interactions[2] and for developing the ideas ofocean planets,[3]carbon planets, andhelium planets.[4]
Kuchner appears as an expert commentator in theNational Geographic television show "Alien Earths" and frequently answers the "Ask Astro" questions inAstronomy Magazine. Kuchner helped found several citizen science projects, includingDisk Detective andBackyard Worlds.
Kuchner was born inMontreal, Quebec, Canada. He received his bachelor's degree in physics fromHarvard in 1994 and his Ph.D. in astronomy fromCalifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2000. His doctoral thesis advisor wasMichael E. Brown. After he earned his Ph.D., Kuchner studied at theCenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian as a Michelson Fellow, and then atPrinceton University as a Hubble Fellow.[5]
Kuchner's parents are neurosurgeon Eugene Kuchner and psychologist Joan Kuchner. His wife is epidemiologistJennifer Nuzzo.
Kuchner is the author of a book,Marketing for Scientists: How to Shine in Tough Times (2011,Island Press).[6] The book provides career and communication advice for scientists using the language ofmarketing, with chapters on "business", "how to sell something," "branding" and so on. This approach struck some reviewers as cynical about human nature.[7] But readers from a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines praised the book's unique angle and breadth of research.Ecology described it as "a must-read for ecologists and, indeed, for all scientists, mathematicians, and engineers at all career stages." AstrophysicistNeil deGrasse Tyson called it, "the first of its kind".
Kuchner is the author of a series ofbooks for children about astrophysics. The first isCosmic Collisions: Asteroid vs. Comet (2024,MIT Kids Press).[8]
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