Meet Our Leadership

Dr. Walter Massey is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the GMTO Corporation. He is also Chairman of the Board of the City Colleges of Chicago and Senior Advisor to the President of the University of Chicago. Dr. Massey is President Emeritus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), having served as President from 2010-2016, and Chancellor from 2016-2018. He is the former Director of Argonne National Laboratory and former Vice President for Research at the University of Chicago. From 1991 to 1993, Dr. Massey served as Director of the National Science Foundation before joining the University of California system as Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs. In 1995 he became President of Morehouse College, where he served for twelve years. He has been professor of physics at Brown, University of Chicago, and UC Santa Cruz.

In the corporate sector, Dr. Massey is the former Chairman of Bank of America and a former member of the Board of Directors of the McDonald’s Corporation and Delta Airlines. He has also served on the boards of the Mellon Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, Smithsonian Institution, and others. He has been recognized with honorary degrees from 42 universities, including Harvard, Yale, SAIC, Columbia, and Brown.

Dr. Armandroff is the McDonald Observatory Director, a Professor, and Frank and Susan Bash Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining UT Austin, Dr. Armandroff was Observatory Director at the W.M. Keck Observatory. He worked for 19 years at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, AZ, where he became Associate Director of NOAO and Director of the NOAO Gemini office. Dr. Armandroff’s research focuses on dwarf spheroidal galaxies, stellar populations in our galaxy and nearby galaxies, globular clusters, and astronomical instrumentation. He has served as an advisor or Board member for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the Mauna Kea Management Board at the University of Hawaii, the Observatory Council for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, the Mathematical and Physical Science Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation, and the External Advisory Panel for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Mr. Alexander was President of SBC (now AT&T) from 1999 to 2002. During his 32-year career at SBC, he held a variety of executive positions in network operations, sales, marketing, and governmental affairs, and international operations. Prior to his term as President, Mr. Alexander led SBC operations in Chile and the Asia Pacific region. He was VP of sales for Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, directing network and marketing for Southwestern Bell Texas. Mr. Alexander now serves on a number of boards, including Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio Medical Foundation, LiftFund, Port Authority of San Antonio, UT Austin McDonald Observatory, and Department of Astronomy Board of Visitors, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Dr. João Luiz Azevedo is a Senior Research Engineer at Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço (IAE), at the Brazilian Aerospace Technical Center (DCTA), and an Adjunct Professor at ITA. Dr. Azevedo was the Director for Space Transportation and Licensing of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), from 2004 to 2008, and Technical Vice-Director of the Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) Binational Enterprise, from 2008 to 2009. He was also the President of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) from January 2019 to April 2020. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He is a member of the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee, since 2004, and member of the AIAA International Activities Committee and of the AIAA Editorial Advisory Board of the Educational Book Series, since 2009. He was the Scientific Director of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (ABCM), in the 2015–2017 administration of ABCM. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), since 2012, and he is currently the Chair of the Program Committee of ICAS. He is a Member of the Brazilian National Academy of Engineering (ANE) since 2017. Dr. Azevedo studied Aeronautical Engineering at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), from 1977 to 1981. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering from Stanford University, respectively, in 1983 and 1988.

In his role as Texas A&M’s Interim Vice Provost for Research, Jack Baldauf, provides leadership for strategic research planning, space and environmental initiatives, faculty development and recognition, and international programs to further the University’s research mission.

Baldauf is a professor in the Department of Oceanography, College of Geosciences. In his previous positions with the college, he served as executive associate dean and associate dean for research and deputy director and manager of science operations for the International Ocean Discovery Program.

Dr. Eisenstein is a professor of astronomy at Harvard University. He studies cosmology and extragalactic astronomy using theoretical and observational methods. He was part of the University of Arizona astronomy faculty for nine years before moving to Harvard in 2010. He has been active in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and has been the Director of SDSS-III, a collaboration working to map the Milky Way, search for extrasolar planets, and solve the mystery of dark energy since 2007. He is the co-Spokesperson of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument collaboration. He is a member of the JWST Near-Infrared Camera instrument team, the SDSS-IV Consortium, and the Euclid Consortium. In 2012, he served as chair of the National Science Foundation Astronomy Portfolio Review committee. Currently, he is serving as Chair of the Cosmology Science Panel of the Astro 2020 Decadal Survey. In 2014, he received the Shaw Prize in Astronomy and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Jannuzi heads the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona and is the Director of the Steward Observatory, which includes the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. He joined the University of Arizona after 17 years at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), during which time he served as Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory and Associate Director at NOAO. He serves as an advisor or Board Member for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee of the NSF, the American Astronomical Society Committee on Astronomy and Public Policy, the AAS Council, and the LSSTC Executive Board of Directors, and was a member of the Thirty Meter Telescope Science Advisory Committee and the International Dark Sky Association Board of Directors. Dr. Jannuzi’s research interests include observational cosmology, quasar absorption line systems, active galaxies, and instrumentation for surveys.

Dr. Kewley is the Director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Director of the Harvard College Observatory, and Professor of Astrophysics at the Harvard Department of Astronomy. Dr. Kewley obtained her PhD in 2002 from the Australian National University on the connection between star-formation and supermassive black holes in galaxies. She was a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Fellow and a NASA Hubble Fellow. From 2017-2022, she implemented her scientific vision through her Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D).

Dr. Mulchaey is the director and the Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science. He also oversees Las Campanas Observatory in Chile—the future home of the GMT. Mulchaey's research covers a wide range of topics, including groups and clusters of galaxies, elliptical galaxies, dark matter—the invisible material that makes up most of the universe—active galaxies and black holes. Dr. Mulchaey received his B.S. in astrophysics from UC-Berkeley and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. He was a fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute and at Carnegie before joining the Carnegie staff. Dr. Mulchaey previously served as a scientific editor for The Astrophysical Journal and is a frequent consultant for NSF and NASA. He is also very actively involved in public outreach and education efforts throughout the Los Angeles area.

Dr. Park is the Director of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) Center for Large Telescopes and is Professor and Principal Researcher at KASI. He was previously the Director of the Optical/Infrared Astronomy Division and serves as a Board Member for the Korean Astronomical Society. His areas of expertise include star formation in young open clusters in our galaxy, extra-solar planet studies based on gravitational microlensing, and the development of CCD cameras for ground-based optical telescopes. He led the construction of the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), which consists of three widefield 1.6m telescopes distributed in Chile, South Africa, and Australia, and supported the exploration of the structure and diversity of planetary systems and variable objects, including very low-mass exoplanets.

Sarah Pearce is the Acting Chief Scientist of CSIRO, the Deputy Chief of CASS and the Director of the SKA Low Telescope Project. Prior to these roles, she was Project Manager for GridPP, the UK computing grid for particle physics. Sarah's previous experience includes time as a science advisor in the UK Parliament.

Sarah is currently the Deputy Director of CASS. Sarah has particular responsibility for CSIRO's role in the Square Kilometre Array project, and manages CSIRO's partnership with the SKA Observatory. She has been Australian Science Director on the SKA Board, and part of the negotiating team for the SKA Treaty. Sarah holds a PhD in X-ray astronomy from the University of Leicester and an undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Oxford (Worcester College).

Dr. Ruiz is the University of Arizona Vice President of Global Futures, having previously been the Dean of the College of Science and the Executive Dean of the Colleges of Letters, Arts and Science at the University of Arizona. He also serves as the Vice President for Innovation and the Thomas R. Brown Chair and Director of Biosphere 2. Dr. Ruiz is a Professor of Geosciences specializing in Earth Science issues ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change. He is a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists and a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, the Geochemical Society, and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science. Dr. Ruiz has served as President of the Geological Society of America and as head of the Department of Geosciences. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and was named a “National Researcher” by the Mexican government in 2010. He has served as Secretary of the Volcanology Section of the American Geophysical Union, Councilor of the Geological Society of America, and as a National Science Foundation Panel Member for the Instrumentation and Facilities Program and the Centers for Excellence in Science and Technology Program.

Dr. Tinney is a Professor of Astronomy at the University New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, where he heads the Exoplanetary Science at UNSW Research Group he founded in 2007. His research focuses on exoplanets and brown dwarfs. He is a Chair of the Anglo-Australian Advisory Council and a member of the National Committee of Astronomy of the Australian Academy of Sciences. He is a Graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Dr. Tinney has served as Head of Astronomy for the Anglo-Australian Observatory. He served as a member of the GMTO Science Advisory Committee from 2009 to 2016. He has been a lead investigator for multiple astronomical instrumentation projects, including the IRIS2 and Veloce instruments for the Anglo-Australian Telescope.