The current Chair of the USRA Council of Institutions is Prof. Edward J. Groth. Prof. Groth received a BS from Caltech in 1968 and a PhD from Princeton University in 1971, both in Physics. He has been a member of the Princeton Physics Faculty since receiving his PhD. His research has included IR astronomy, high-speed optical photometry including timing of the Crab Pulsar, and studies of large scale structure and cosmology. In 1977 he was selected as the Data and Operations Team Leader for what became the Hubble Space Telescope. After launch in 1990, he was appointed the Deputy Principal Investigator for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera Instrument. He also served on the ad-hoc committee to characterize the error in the primary mirror; a prerequisite was for the fixes put in place at the time of the first servicing mission in late 1993. His research included carrying out the first HST survey, now known as the “Groth Strip,” and the first weak lensing analysis of HST data. He also participated in Keck observations to obtain spectroscopy for the objects in the survey. He has participated in an Optical SETI project and lately has been serving on the External Independent Readiness Board for NASA’s Navigator program which seeks to discover and characterize Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable zones of nearby stars. Prof. Groth served on the 1980 Astronomy Decadal Review committee. He was the Associate Chair of the Princeton Physics Department from 2001-2008. He has served as Princeton’s representative to USRA for a number of years and as Vice-Chair of the USRA council of Institutions, 2006-2008.
The COI Vice-Chair is Prof. Thomas Zurbuchen, Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan College of Engineering and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Prof. Zurbuchen is an active researcher in Space Science and Aerospace Engineering and performs experimental and theoretical studies in space and solar research. He leads the Solar and Heliospheric Research Group, which develops new theoretical concepts and models, analyzes data from the ongoing NASA Ulysses, WIND, ACE, and MESSENGER missions, and which constructs new flight instruments. Most recently, his group, consisting of students and engineers, has built an instrument called the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) for NASA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury. He also has an active group focusing on breakthrough technology developments for future missions and applications much broader than space science applications. He serves on numerous NASA panels and is part of two standing committees of the National Academy of Sciences.
The USRA Council of Institutions also has Regional Secretaries who represent their regional membership in a variety of organizational matters, most importantly in the nomination of candidates for the Board of Trustees.
