Speaker Biography

Martin Elvis

Senior Astrophysicist

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Dr. Martin Elvis is a highly cited astrophysicist (with over 30,000 peer citations) who has used most large space based observatories to publish some 450 papers on supermassive black holes, seen as quasars, out to the edge of the universe. Lately, concerned about the growing cost of space telescopes, he has turned to researching the astronomy needed to enable asteroid mining, with a view to cutting those costs radically. He has published widely on issues related to asteroid mining and the space economy. He is unduly proud that he is (probably) the first professional astronomer to visit the Harvard Business School on business. He obtained his PhD in X-ray astronomy in 1978 in the UK, and has worked at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian ever since on a series of space X-ray telescopes, culminating with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the Aspen Center for Physics, and is past-Chair of the Hubble Space Telescope Users’ Committee and of the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society. Asteroid 9283 Martinelvis is named after him.