B.A. in Astrophysics, 1986, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; A.M in Astronomy, 1988, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Ph.D. In Astronomy, 1992, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Chris Smith is the chairman of the South American Astronomy Coordination Committee (SAACC), Director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and Associate Director of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), responsible for the operation of both telescopes, in addition to the instrumentation and facilities for CTIO research and the operation of the underlying infrastructure of shared facilities containing all AURA observatories.
Smith oversees all AURA operations in Chile, including the Gemini Observatory and the SOAR, DCAM and LSST telescopes.
For the transfer of these astronomical data it is essential to have a high speed network that allows a stable and safe transfer; To do so, AURA- led by Chris Smith -, together with REUNA (National Academic Network of Chile), are building a large digital highway from the LSST (Cerro Pachón, La Serena) to Santiago, which will connect the telescope with the world.
Main Lines of Research and Projects
• Studies on Dark Energy.
• Studies in cosmic acceleration
• Photometric studies of Magellanic Clouds.
Full profile at: http://www.ctio.noao.edu/~chris/curriculum.html
