Ed Moses

Class of 2014-15

Giant Magellan Telescope Organization
National Academy of Engineering

President of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, Ed Moses leads the design, construction, and commissioning of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a 25-meter ground-based telescope that will be larger than any telescope in existence today.

Scheduled to come online in 2021 at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the GMT project represents an international technical and scientific collaboration with eleven partner research institutions from the United States, Australia, Korea, Brazil, and Chile. The telescope will enable astronomers to address some of humanity’s most profound questions about our origins and our place in the universe by discovering and characterizing planets around other stars; searching for signs of life beyond Earth; probing the formation of young stars and galaxies shortly after the Big Bang; and exploring fundamental issues in cosmology and physics, including dark matter and dark energy.

Moses was formerly the principal associate director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he led the development of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the largest optical and laser project ever constructed. The NIF uses high-power lasers to focus energy at the level needed to initiate the conversion of hydrogen to helium in fusion reactions similar to those occurring in the center of stars.

He is recognized as a leader in fusion research and development, laser science and technology, as well as a top-flight director of industrial partnerships and project management. In addition, he has made significant contributions to the fields of high-energy, high-peak-power, high-average-power, and short-wavelength-lasers and associated technologies. He is widely published and holds many patents in laser technology and computational physics.

Moses earned his bachelor’s degree in 1972 and his doctorate in 1977, both from Cornell University in New York.

He belongs to the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has eighteen years of experience developing laser systems for the US Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, and thirty years of experience developing and managing complex laser systems and high-technology projects. From 1990 to 1995, he was a founding partner of Advanced Technology Applications, which advised clients on high-technology projects.

Among other prestigious awards, Moses has received the Thomas Jefferson Award, the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award, the National Nuclear Security Administration Defense Programs Award of Excellence, the Memorial D. S. Rozhdestvensky Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Lasers and Optical Sciences, the R&D100 Award for the Peregrine Radiation Therapy Program, and the US Department of Energy Award of Excellence.

As a TIAS Fellow, Moses will collaborate with faculty and students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Science.