Page 20 - WNS 2022 E-Program Booklet

John O’Meara, PhD.

Dr. John O’Meara is the Chief Scientist at the W.M. Keck Observatory, situ-
ated on top of the Mauna Kea volcanic mountain, here in Hawai’i. At 13,796
feet, Mauna Kea is a sacred place where many Hawaiian people visit in
search of ancient spiritual connections. The summit provides one of the
clearest views from Earth for stargazing and is home to some of the largest
optical and Infrared observatories in the world. It is also technically the tallest
mountain on Earth if the 18,900 feet of mountain below the ocean is also
considered.

Dr.O’Meara graduated in Physics from the University of Washington, fol-
lowed by a Masters and then a PhD from University of California San Diego.
He worked as a post-doctoral researcher at MIT, before joining the faculty at
Penn State University. He became a professor at Saint Michael’s College,
Colchester, VT before taking on his current role at the Keck Observatory.

As the primary scientific liaison for the observatory, Dr. O’Meara is responsi-
ble for maintaining the relationship between the observatory and its scientific
stakeholders including the observing community and federal funding agen-
cies. He helps set the science policy for the observatory, and is responsible
for identifying new partnership and funding opportunities. He is a member of
multiple national astronomical oversight and advisory committees and also a
member of multiple large national and international research teams, and
multiple science definition teams for future telescope facilities.

Dr. O’Meara is an experienced observational research astrophysicist using
ground and space-based facilities such as Keck, Hubble, and the James
Webb space telescope. When not setting federal science policy and strate-
gic planning, he turns his thoughts on cosmic topics, such as Big Bang nu-
cleosynthesis, circumgalactic and intergalactic medium, galaxy formation
and evolution, and future ground and space telescope development.

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