March 10, 2026
The March 10, 2026 speaker will be Dr. Keith Gendreau who will present “The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER)”
Dr. Keith Gendreau, NASA Goddard, Principal Investigator for NICER Mission
Dr. Keith Gendreau is the Principal Investigator for the NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) Mission of Opportunity on the International Space Station. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1995 for work with the X-ray CCDs on the ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics) mission by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). Since 1995, he has been at NASA Goddard in the X-ray Astrophysics Branch where he develops technologies for X-ray sources, optics, and detectors as well as astrophysics mission concepts. His awards include the Robert H. Goddard Award of Merit (2024), High Energy Astrophysics Division of American Astronomical Society (AAS) Rossi Prize (2022), Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (2020), NASA Invention of the Year (2019), and John C. Lindsay Memorial Award for Space Science (2019).