Announcing Gemini’s New Chief Scientist John Blakeslee

John Blakeslee.

In October John Blakeslee begins his duties as Gemini’s new Chief Scientist. John comes to Gemini from the National Research Council’s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, in Victoria, BC, where he has served as an Astronomer and Senior Research Officer for the past 10 years. John earned his PhD from MIT in 1997, and is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Victoria. John has worked on a varied array of research topics, including galaxy structure and evolution, supermassive black holes, the extragalactic distance scale, large-scale structure, globular cluster populations, and data analysis pipelines.

John is very familiar with Gemini, and for the past several years has worked in Canada’s National Gemini Office. In his capacity as Chief Scientist, John will be instrumental in setting and implementing Gemini’s scientific goals and directions while working closely with our international user community from the Gemini South Base Facility in La Serena, Chile. John adds, “I’m excited about working with Gemini’s superb staff to achieve the best science with our twin telescopes. I’m especially looking forward to the upcoming instruments and upgrades that will make Gemini an even more powerful, efficient, and flexible facility for studying everything from near-Earth asteroids to cosmic dawn.” Gemini’s Interim Director Laura Ferrarese adds, “The remarkable breadth of John’s scientific interests make him ideally suited to lead Gemini’s vision into the next decade. We are all looking forward to welcoming him at Gemini and working together to further enhance the role our Observatory will play in the years to come.”