National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

NASA Astrophysics Division Director Dr. Clampin Lectures at Subaru Users’ Meeting

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Credit: NASA

Dr. Mark Clampin, Astrophysics Division Director, NASA Science Mission Directorate, presented a lecture on January 24, 2024, at a special session of the Subaru Users’ Meeting (January 23-25, 2024) held at NAOJ Mitaka Campus. Clampin has a diverse portfolio of experience ranging from instrument development and astronomy research, to the management of large projects, thanks to the many years he served as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Observatory Project Scientist, as well as having been responsible for developing instrumentation for the Hubble Space Telescope.

In his talk, Clampin introduced the initial results from JWST. It was very interesting to hear about the difficulties in the development, and other things that only someone deeply involved in the project can know. He also introduced the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), poised to become NASA’s next large project after JWST, and expressed his hopes for Japanese participation in the project. Serious consideration for HWO started from the end of 2023; two Japanese researchers have been dispatched from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) as representatives.