About the Production Team
About Bob Fosbury
Bob works for the European Space Agency as part of ESA's collaboration with NASA on the Hubble project. This work is based on the premises of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) near Munich in Germany. He started doing this in 1985, more than 5 years before launch and so has been involved in this huge project for quite a while. During the latter part of this period, Bob served on NASA's Ad Hoc Science Working Group and ESA's Study Science Team as they developed the instrument concepts for the James Webb Space Telescope, the next generation of space observatory.
Bob has published over two hundred scientific papers on topics ranging from the outer atmospheres of stars, the nature of quasars and active galaxies to the physics of forming galaxies in the most distant reaches of the Universe. He started his career at the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO) in Herstmonceux, England in 1969 and was awarded his PhD by the nearby University of Sussex in 1973. He then became one of the very first Research Fellows at the newly constructed Anglo Australian Observatory 4 metre telescope in New South Wales, Australia before going to ESO while it was based at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He then had a spell of 7 years as a staff member at the RGO, working on instruments for the new observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands and on the pioneering Starlink astronomical computer network.
Bob is currently chairman of the ESO Astronomy Faculty, the largest group of professional astronomers in Europe (and Chile), and is active in the close liaison between the ESO and ESA science programmes. He has had a lifelong interest is the study of natural phenomena of all kinds and is particularly interested in atmospheric optics and the origin of natural colour.
About Lars Lindberg Christensen
Lars is a science communication specialist heading the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre group in Munich, Germany where he is responsible for public outreach and education for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in Europe.
Lars obtained his Master’s Degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Before assuming his current position, he spent a decade working as a science communicator and technical specialist for Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen.
Lars has more than 100 publications to his credit, most of them in popular science communication and its theory. His other productive interests lie in the areas of graphical communication, written communication, technical communication and scientific communication. He is the author of “The Hands-On Guide to Science Communication” (Springer) as well as the co-author of a colourful book on light phenomena in nature. He has produced material for a multitude of different media from star shows, laser shows and slide shows, to web, print, TV and radio. His methodology is focussed on devising and implementing innovative strategies for the production of efficient science communication and educational material. This work involves working with highly skilled graphics people and technicians, some results of which are visible at: http://www.spacetelescope.org.
Lars is a founding member and secretary of the International Astronomical Union Working Group on “Communicating Astronomy with the Public”, manager of the world-renowned “ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator” project, Outreach & Education Coordinator for the “Astrophysical Virtual Observatory” and is the Executive producer and director of the science documentary movie “Hubble – 15 Years of Discovery”.
About Martin Kornmesser
Martin obtained his degree in graphics design in Munich in 1989. In those days, computers were not the favourite tools of graphic designers and, throughout the nineties, Martin actively pioneered the exploration of the fascinating and newly emerging world of computer graphics.
In 1990 Martin Kornmesser was the co-founder of the company ART-M, where he created illustrations, wall-paintings and all kinds of graphics design before joining ESA's Hubble Space Telescope outreach group in 1999.