Claude R. Canizares

Biography

He earned his BA, MA and Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University after which he came to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow and then joined the faculty. He has served as Director of the Center for Space Research, now the MIT-Kavli Institute (1990-2001), Associate Provost (2001-2006), Vice President for Research & Associate Provost (2006-2013), and Vice President (2013-2015). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceHe has served on numerous advisory committees including the NASA Advisory Council, the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrpreneurship of the Department of Commerce, and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and chaired the National Academies’ Space Studies Board. .  He has also received several awards including decoration for Meritorious Civilian Service to the United States Air Force, and two NASA Public Service Medals.

Research Interest

Professor Canizares’s main research interests are high-resolution spectroscopy and plasma diagnostics of cosmic X-ray sources.  He led the development of the High Resolution Transmission Grating Spectrometer on NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and of the crystal spectrometer on the earlier Einstein Observatory.  He studies the properties of a wide range of Galactic and extra-Galactic X-ray sources, including active stars, black-hole or neutron star binaries, supernova remnants, quasars and clusters of galaxies.  He also uses X-ray sources as probes of inter-stellar and inter-galactic matter.