Marc W. Buie

Who is Marc W. Buie?

Marc W. Buie is a U.S. astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and also the Sentinel Space Telescope Mission Scientist for the B612 Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid impact events.

Buie grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and received his B.Sc. in physics from Louisiana State University in 1980. He then switched fields and earned his Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona in 1984. Dr. Buie was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii from 1985 to 1988. From 1988 to 1991, he worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute where he played a key role in the planning and scheduling of the first planetary observations ever made by the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr. Buie joined the staff at Lowell Observatory in 1991.

Since 1983 Pluto has been a central theme of research done by Buie, who has published over 85 scientific papers and journal articles. His first result was to prove that the methane visible on Pluto was on its surface and not part of its atmosphere.