Mailing address: Prof. Claude R. Canizares MIT Room 37-241 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Biography: Professor Canizares is the Bruno Rossi Professor of Experimental Physics at MIT and Professor at the Center for Space Research. He is a principal investigator on NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, leading the development of the High Resolution Transmission Grating Spectrometer for this major space observatory, and is Associate Director of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center. He has also worked on several other space astronomy missions, including as Co-investigator on the Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2). His main research interests are high resolution spectroscopy and plasma diagnostics of supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies, cooling flows in galaxies and clusters, X-ray studies of dark matter, X-ray properties of quasars and active galactic nuclei, and gravitational lenses. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Associated Universities Inc. and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He served on the NASA Advisory Council and was chair of the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council and NASA's Space Science Advisory Committee. Professor Canizares received the BA, AM and Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. He came to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow in 1971 and joined the faculty in 1974 progressing to professor of physics in 1984. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Canizares has authored or co-authored more than 145 scientific papers.

About Chandra: The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is a major NASA mission of the "great observatory" series, scheduled for launch in July, 1999. The MIT Center for Space Research has involvement in two of the four scientific instruments on Chandra: the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer and the Chandra Advanced Charge-Coupled Device Imaging Spectrometer. The Center is also active in the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Science Center, which will oversee the operation of Chandra during the mission.