Robert Simcoe

Robert A. Simcoe came to MIT as a Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellow in Physics in 2003. He specializes in observational astrophysics, with particular emphasis on the chemistry of galaxies and intergalactic matter in the early universe. An amateur astronomer and telescope maker from his youth, Simcoe went on to earn his A.B. in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Astronomy from Caltech in 2003. He joined the MIT Physics faculty in 2006, after which he served as PI and Project Scientist for the FIRE infrared spectrometer, a facility instrument for the 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes. He was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan foundation research fellowship in 2009. On January 16, 2019, Simcoe became director of the MIT Kavli Institute.