Matt Mountain

Charles Mattias ("Matt") Mountain is the current President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). AURA is a consortium of 40 US institutions and 4 international affiliates that operates world-class astronomical observatories. AURA’s role is to establish, nurture, and promote public observatories and facilities that advance innovative astronomical research. In addition, AURA is deeply committed to public and educational outreach, and to diversity throughout the astronomical and scientific workforce. AURA carries out its role through its astronomical facilities. Mountain served as the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Director in Baltimore, Maryland between September 2005 and March 2015. Previously, Mountain was the director of the Gemini Observatory and led the design, construction, and operation of Gemini's two 8-meter telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. Mountain is also the telescope scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a member of the JWST Science Working Group, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, and a visiting professor at the University of Oxford.

Mountain earned a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1978 and a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1983, both from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London University. After earning his degrees, Mountain held a Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) research fellowship at Imperial College. Mountain later joined the staff of the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, where he remained for seven years. At the Royal Observatory, Mountain's work involved observations of star formation processes, and he led a team that designed and commissioned the CGS-4 infrared array spectrometer for the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii.

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