Bio

Mark is currently an astronomy professor at Michigan State University.

Childhood

His journey started in suburban Philadelphia. As a child, he loved learning about space and was a huge fan of the race to the Moon.

High school

At Cheltenham High School, Mark was active in science fairs, cross-country, track and field, and the math team, graduating in 1979.

College

As a college student at Princeton, he studied astronomy and ran track, graduating with an A.B. in Astrophysical Sciences in 1983.

Graduate School

Mark earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado in 1990

Marriage

He married Megan Donahue while they were both astrophysics graduate students in Boulder.

Postdocs

After Boulder they moved to Pasadena, where Mark was a Research Fellow at Caltech (1990-1993), then to Baltimore, where he was a Hubble Fellow at Johns Hopkins (1993-1995).

Hubble

They stayed in Baltimore for a decade, supporting the Hubble mission at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Megan in the data archive, Mark in public outreach.

Kids

All three of their kids were born in Baltimore.

Michigan State

The whole family moved to Michigan in 2003, when MSU hired both Mark and Megan as professors.

A lot has happened since 2003.

Learn more by exploring the rest of this site.

Or seek Mark out on social media.