John Mulchaey PhD

Dr. John Mulchaey is Director and Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair at the Carnegie Observatories, one of the world’s premier astronomy institutions. Mulchaey earned his B.S. in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Maryland. He joined the scientific staff at Carnegie in 1999 and was named The Observatories’ 11th Director in 2015. Today, he oversees Carnegie’s main campus in Pasadena as well as The Observatories’ large-telescopes facility in Las Campanas, Chile. He also serves on the Board for the Giant Magellan Telescope, a next-generation telescope being designed in Pasadena.

Dr. Mulchaey’s research focuses on a wide range of scientific questions, including dark matter and black holes. In 1993, he led the research team that discovered large amounts of dark matter in the local universe. This discovery received considerable attention from the press, including front page coverage in the New York Times and a featured article in Time magazine. More recently he has appeared in the press as one of the discoverers of the first binary quasar system and as part of the team to follow-up a mysterious fast radio burst for the first time. Mulchaey served as a scientific editor for The Astrophysical Journal from 2005 until 2011. He is also a frequent consultant for both NASA and the National Science Foundation.

In addition to his astronomy career, Dr. Mulchaey is also a successful songwriter. His work has been featured in hundreds of movies and television programs including Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Dawson’s Creek, Dollhouse and Valentine. In 2014, he appeared on the television program The Real Housewives of Orange County and has a Star Trek character named in his honor.