Positions held:

1998-present: Associate Astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute
1998-present: Adjunct Associate Professor, The Johns Hopkins University
1993-1998: Associate Research Professor, The Johns Hopkins University
1990-1993: Research Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University
1985-1990: Associate Research Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University
1982-1985: Assistant Professor/Post-Doctoral Scholar, University of Michigan

Education :

1982: Ph.D., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1978: S.B., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Fellowships and awards:

1982: Junior Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan
1978: NSF Graduate Fellowship
1978: Phi Beta Kappa
1974: National Merit Scholarship

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr. Kriss developed an interest in amateur astronomy in junior high school. While an undergraduate in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he became professionally interested in astronomy through research with a group flying high energy X-ray detectors on high altitude balloons. His work in graduate school at MIT branched out into other wavelengths as he made optical observations of quasars and active galaxies in support of the newly launched Einstein X-ray Observatory. He earned his Ph.D. in 1982 under the supervision of Claude R. Canizares with a thesis entitled "X-ray and Optical Studies of Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasi-stellar Objects". Moving on to the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor/Post-doctoral Scholar, Dr. Kriss studied the mass and dynamics of clusters of galaxies using X-ray images from the Einstein Observatory and optical spectra and photometry obtained at the McGraw-Hill Observatory of the University of Michigan. While at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Kriss was the project scientist for the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, which flew on the space shuttle in 1990 and 1995, and he led the development of the data processing system for the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. He is currently the Lead Instrument Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Dr. Kriss's current research concentrates on observations of quasars and active galaxies, at all wavelengths from the X-ray through the radio, and investigations of the structure and composition of the intergalactic medium.

Dr. Kriss and his wife, Andrea, live in Lutherville, MD, with their three children, Jonathan (12), Katharine (8) and Alexander (4).

Last updated September 2002.