The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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Ian Nigel Evans

Center for Astrophysics
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Ian Nigel Evans
ievans@cfa.harvard.edu

About

Dr. Ian Evans is an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. He is the end-to-end scientist for the Chandra X-ray Center Data System (CXC DS), with overall responsibility for the end-to-end scientific integrity of the data system. The CXCDS provides science software functionality for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) mission, and supports proposal planning, science mission scheduling, standard data processing, archiving, and a portable data analysis package (CIAO). He has extensive experience developing architectures for space- and ground-based astronomical data systems. Dr. Evans is also the project scientist for the Chandra Source Catalog — the definitive catalog of X-ray sources detected by the CXO, and project scientist for the G CLEF precision radial velocity echelle spectrograph. G CLEF is the first major instrument being developed for the Giant Magellan Telescope, and Dr. Evans’ responsibilities include the science requirements and architecture of the operations, observation, and data reduction software, and hardware/software/science systems integration.

Ph.D. (Astrophys.), The Australian National University

Telescopes and Instruments

Giant Magellan Telescope

Is Earth unique, or are there other planets with life in the Milky Way? To answer this question and many others, astronomers need larger and more sensitive observatories than anything we currently have. For that reason, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is collaborating with a number of other institutions around the world to create the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), currently under construction in Chile. The GMT will consist of seven large mirrors acting in concert as one giant telescope 80 feet across. That large size provides an unprecedented view of the sky and the ability to detect the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres. Like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the GMT will be a powerful tool across the field of astronomy, providing insights into the formation of planets, the structure of galaxies, and the evolution of the universe itself.

Visit the GMT Website
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Chandra

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is NASA’s flagship X-ray observatory, providing essential data on everything from the environment surrounding newborn stars to the emissions from hot plasma inside galaxy clusters. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), as part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, manages Chandra’s day-to-day operations, providing spacecraft control, observation planning, and data processing for astronomers. Chandra is one of NASA’s orbiting Great Observatories, along with the Hubble.

Visit the Chandra Website
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