Martin Barstow
Prof. Martin Barstow is Pro-Vice Chancellor for Strategic Science Projects and Director of the Leiester Institute for Space & Earth Observation. He was founding Head of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Leicester from 2009 to 2016. He has published more than 300 papers, of which around 200 are in refereed journals.
His principal research interests are the study of hot white dwarf stars and the surrounding interstellar medium. He began his career as detector scientist on ROSAT and has been involved in many other space missions, including NASA’s Voyager probes, during their interplanetary cruises, the ESA EXOSAT mission, International Ultraviolet Explorer, Hubble Space Telescope and Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. He was a member of the Space Telescope Users’ Committee helping to develop the plans for the final servicing mission of Hubble, which took take place in May 2009. He continues to fly sounding rockets, be involved in research with Hubble as well as leading the Leicester contribution to the ESA Gaia mission. He is contributing to the development of a next generation UV/optical/IR observatory as the UK Space Agency observer on the NASA LUVOIR STDT.
Prof. Barstow has played an important role in scientific funding and advisory structures, becoming a member of Science and Technology Facilities Council from 2009 to 2015. He has also been a member of the ESA Astronomy Working Group and Space Programme Advisory Committee of the United Kingdom Space Agency. He served on the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2005 to 2016, as Councillor and then Astronomy Secretary. In 2013 he was elected as the President for two years from May 2014. Most recently, he was elected as a member of the Space Telescope Science Institute Council by the AURA board and became Chair in 2016, also joining the AURA board.