Caleb Scharf

Who is Caleb Scharf?

Caleb Scharf is a British-born astronomer and the director of the multidisciplinary Columbia Astrobiology Center at Columbia University, New York. He received a B.Sc. in Physics from Durham University, and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge; he did postdoctoral work in X-ray astronomy and observational cosmology at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland.

He has an extensive research record in observational cosmology but more recently works on topics in exoplanetary science and astrobiology. He is the author of the upper-level undergraduate textbook "Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology", published in 2008 by University Science Books, CA. This book won the 2011 Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award and medal from the American Astronomical Society . He has many published professional papers in peer-reviewed journals with 109 papers listed in the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System; three have been cited over 100 times each: the highest counts are 264, 139, 116, all in The Astrophysical Journal.

His blog Life, Unbounded appears at Scientific American and covers topics in astronomy, exoplanetary science, and astrobiology.