Tom Brown

As the head of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission office, Dr. Tom Brown is responsible for overseeing science and flight operations, collaborating with mission stakeholders, engaging the scientific community and the public, and ultimately maximizing the mission’s scientific return. He works with the rest of the JWST mission office to prioritize the efforts of observatory staff, set strategic direction, represent scientific and operational interests with mission partners, and manage the mission’s budget. From 2016 to 2024, he served in an analogous role as the head of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) mission office, where he was responsible for leading the observatory’s staff and science operations at the institute. Before that, Dr. Brown served the institute as the JWST mission scientist, leading the work of the instrument and optics teams, and driving various aspects of mission development prior to launch.

As an instrument scientist for Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) team, Dr. Brown participated in thermal-vacuum testing and calibration, developed the instrument performance model, and explored its scientific capabilities. As an instrument scientist for Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), he worked on calibration, troubleshooting, and user support. He has been an astronomer at the institute since joining in 2001.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Brown was a postdoctoral research associate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Baltimore. As a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University, he was involved in the integration, testing, and ground control of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) for the Astro-2 space shuttle mission.

Dr. Brown has acted as the principal investigator of 20 space-based observing programs. His work has obtained high-precision ages in ultra-faint dwarf galaxies to investigate quenching during the Era of Reionization, measured the star-formation histories through various structures of the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, and determined the first parallax and high-precision distance for an ancient metal-poor globular cluster. Dr. Brown publishes his work in the Astronomical Journal and the Astrophysical Journal, and presents his research in a variety of settings to both the public and astronomical community.

Education:

PhD in Astrophysics, Johns Hopkins University
MA in Astrophysics, Johns Hopkins University
BS in Physics and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests:

• Star-formation histories of nearby galaxies

• Stellar evolution in low-mass stars

• Stellar-population simulations

• Galaxy formation and evolution

• Star clusters

• Model stellar atmospheres and synthetic spectra

Professional Websites: Professional Website

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1793-9968