About me
I'm an X-ray astrophysicist in the X-ray group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where I am a Senior Scientist with the Universities Space Research Association. I lead the Science Operations Center for IXPE, NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, directing the mission's science program from observation planning through data validation and delivery.
Before MSFC I was a postdoctoral scholar at Professor Niel Brandt's group at Pennsylvania State University, where I was lead Co-Investigator for the XMM-SERVS multi-year heritage survey. I earned my Ph.D. in astrophysics from Dartmouth College, supervised by Professor Ryan Hickox, and my B.Sc. in physics and M.Sc. in astronomy from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.
Research
I study how supermassive black holes grow and how that growth is tied to the galaxies around them — using X-ray polarimetry to get at the geometry of accreting systems, hard X-rays to find the obscured black holes that softer bands miss, and wide-area surveys to turn individual detections into populations.
News update
Mission work
Alongside my own research I help run the missions themselves — planning what gets observed, making sure the data that comes back is trustworthy, and helping shape the telescopes we haven't built yet.
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Lead, Science Operations Center
IXPE
I direct the science program of NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, an operating astrophysics mission, from observation planning through data validation and delivery to the archive.
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Science Principal Investigator
HEROIX
Science PI for the HEROIX Astrophysics MidEx mission concept study — defining what the mission would need to measure, and what it could answer.
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Project Science
Chandra
I support Chandra Project Science at Marshall, work that has run alongside every other role here since 2018.
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Science Lead, U.S. Archive
SRG/ART-XC
Science lead for the U.S. archive of ART-XC data, including a processing pipeline carrying novel corrections for a mirror misalignment we identified during verification.
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Project Scientist
SuperHERO
Project Scientist for the SuperHERO hard X-ray balloon telescope, supported by NASA's APRA program.
Over 40 peer-reviewed publications as first or contributing author, and more than 100 further papers as part of collaboration teams including the IXPE Science Working Groups, the HEXP concept study, and XMM-SERVS. The work has been supported by roughly $2M in PI-led funding.
Full list on ADSLeadership and service
Community
Vice Chair of the Executive Committee for NASA's Physics of the Cosmos Program Analysis Group (PhysPAG), and Co-Chair of the PhysPAG X-ray Science Interest Group — both since 2022.
Mission concepts
Supported the Lynx flagship, NewAthena, the High Energy X-ray Probe, and HEROIX concept studies.
Meetings
Chaired the Science and Local Organizing Committees for the International X-ray Polarimetry Symposium, Huntsville, 2024.
Peer review
Referee for ApJ, ApJS, MNRAS and A&A. Proposal reviewer for NASA Chandra, NuSTAR, Swift, ADAP and the NASA Postdoctoral Program.
Get In Touch
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my research.
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NASA MSFC/ST12
Huntsville, AL, 35812
United States -
256-961-7897
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chien-ting dot chen at nasa dot gov