I'm an astrophysicist working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as part of the Chandra X-Ray Center, which operates the Chandra X-ray Observatory spacecraft. You can contact me at jcm@cfa.harvard.edu or jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu.
In addition to my day job I carry out research into the history of the space program, and write a monthly column for Sky and Telescope Magazine and an email-distributed newsletter, Jonathan's Space Report . I've also appeared on TV around the world pontificating on the latest goings-on in space and have now ventured into the podcastosphere. You can see me chat with Neil Tyson at the WGBH Forum and on some CfA items
Scientific Interests:
Other Interests:
Eponymous minor planet: (4589) McDowell
My first astronomy job came when I left high school and
worked for six months at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, at
that time located at
Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex. After a math degree at Churchill College,
Cambridge and a summer job at Royal Observatory, Edinburgh,
I began a Ph.D. at the
Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge
(the real Cambridge, I mean). This turned out to be a work
of fiction about stars that never existed and predicted a
submillimeter background radiation that was later discovered
and shortly thereafter retracted. I decided it was time to
work on things one could really observe, and went to do a
postdoc at Jodrell Bank. After a brief flirtation with the
microwave background I got interested in the physics of
quasars and have been stuck trying to figure them out ever
since. I came to CfA in 1988 as a postdoc, escaped to
Huntsville, Alabama in 1991 but the lure of
Harvard Square
was too strong and I've been back here since 1992.
Most recently I've been studying nearby galaxies with the Chandra X-ray
Observatory and working on the Virtual Observatory project.
My Erdos number is 5
You can also read a more formal bio.