John O'meara
Chief Scientist & Deputy Director at LUVOIR Mission Concept Science & Technology Definition Team
Kawaihae, Hawaii, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJohn O'meara is an observational astrophysicist and cosmologist with over a decade of leadership at major observatories and national advisory boards, currently serving as Chief Scientist and Deputy Director of the W. M. Keck Observatory. He has led flagship community studies—co-leading START for the Habitable Worlds Observatory and heading the LUVOIR Cosmic Origins science team—bridging science priorities to mission architectures. A veteran committee chair and federal reviewer, he has steered the AAAC and NASA astrophysics senior reviews, shaping funding and strategic decisions across agencies. He combines hands-on telescope observing and data analysis with extensive grant writing and teaching experience, having held faculty positions and mentored students. Based in Kawaihae, Hawaii, he balances operational observatory leadership with national science advocacy, bringing both practical instrument experience and policy fluency to large-scale space science efforts. An understated strength is his long record of translating community consensus into concrete architecture trades that drive mission design.
10 years of coding experience
13 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Physics, Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Physics at University of WashingtonUniversity of California San Diego
German, idl
Github Skills (25)
reduction10
pipeline9
python8
spectral7
medium6
routines6
ssa5
probing4
database3
cython3
spectra3
galaxy3
spectrum3
astronomy2
mercury2
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
astronomeara/xastropy
Aug 2015 - Jan 2016
Contributions:19 pushes, 2 branches in 5 months
pythonastrophysicsastropyavoidduplication
pypeit/kcwitools
Oct 2018 - Dec 2018
Tools for KCWI Reduction and Analysis
Contributions:51 commits, 2 PRs, 43 pushes in 1 month
pythonanalysisreductionssaprogram-analysis
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