Matt Mountain selected as AURA president

Matt Mountain

SPIE Member Matt Mountain, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), has been selected as the Association of Universities for Research Astronomy (AURA) President, to serve beginning 1 March.

AURA is an alliance of 40 U.S. institutions and six international affiliates that operate astronomical observatories. STScI, which has a staff of 600, operates the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope and is preparing for the science operations of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

In making the announcement, AURA Past President William Smith and Board of Directors Chair Richard Green said that Mountain's experience in large-program and large-facility management in ground- and space-based organizations will be an asset in his role as president. The association is working toward completion of construction on the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and the JWST.

Mountain is an author of several papers in the SPIE Digital Library on the JSWT progress. He has been the NASA-appointed JWST Telescope Scientist since 2002, and a professor in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Physics and Astronomy.