“Assessment of NASA's Mars Exploration Architecture,” letter to Dr. Carl Pilcher, science program director for NASA's Solar System Exploration Division (November 11)

Professor Canizares is the Bruno Rossi Professor of Experimental Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and director of the Center for Space Research. He is a principal investigator on NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, leading the development of the High Resolution Transmission Grating Spectrometer for this major space observatory, and is associate director of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center. He has also worked on several other space astronomy missions, including as co-investigator on the Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2). His main research interests are high-resolution spectroscopy and plasma diagnostics of supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies, cooling flows in galaxies and clusters, x-ray studies of dark matter, x-ray properties of quasars and active galactic nuclei, and gravitational lenses. He is a former member of the NASA Advisory Council, is former chair of the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Associated Universities Inc. and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and formerly chaired NASA's Space Science Advisory Committee. Professor Canizares received the B.A., A.M., and Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. He came to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow in 1971 and joined the faculty in 1974, progressing to professor of physics in 1984. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Canizares has authored or co-authored more than 145 scientific papers.