Grant Williams appointed new director of MMT Observatory

As of January 1, 2011, the MMT Observatory, a joint venture of theSmithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona, is under newleadership. Grant Williams, who has served as the observatory’sAssociate Director since 2007, has been appointed new Director of theMMTO.

“I’m very honored to be given the opportunity to lead such a premierastronomical observatory,” Williams said. “As an astronomy student, Iwas awestruck by telescopes like the MMT. Even now, as the incomingdirector, I get goose bumps whenever I see that enormous primarymirror.”

“The MMT remains a major instrument in unraveling the mysteries of theuniverse,” said Charles Alcock, director of the Harvard-SmithsonianCenter for Astrophysics. “I’m confident that Dr. Williams’ leadershipwill ensure the MMT’s continued scientific productivity.”

Williams received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Universityat Buffalo in 1994 and a Ph.D. from Clemson University in 2000. Hefirst joined the MMTO in September 2002 when he was awarded theFirestone Postdoctoral Fellowship. He was hired as an MMT staffscientist in March 2004, and worked as a technical coordinator from 2005 until 2007, when he was appointed Associate Director.

His research focuses on the study of very evolved high-mass starscalled Wolf-Rayet stars and the stellar explosions (supernovae andgamma-ray bursts) they produce.

The MMT Observatory operates the 6.5-meter (21-foot) MMT telescope onthe summit of Mt. Hopkins, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles)south of Tucson, Ariz., on the grounds of the Smithsonian’s FredLawrence Whipple Observatory.

Some of MMT’s recent exciting discoveries include dwarf galaxies lingering in the outskirts of our Milky

Way and hypervelocity stars racing out of ourgalaxy at speeds of more than 1 million miles per hour — so fast thatthey will never return. Using a new device to quench excessive starlight,astronomers at MMTO obtained images of a planet on a much closer orbitaround its parent star than any other previously photographedextrasolar planet.

Williams follows Faith Vilas, an astronomer at the UA’s StewardObservatory, who headed MMTO for five years.

This release is being issued jointly with the University of Arizona .

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Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the SmithsonianAstrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfAscientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin,evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.