Terry Herter, PhD

Terry Herter is chairman of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University, where his research focuses on infrared astronomy and the development of infrared instrumentation for major observatories. Herter earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh before completing his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, where his fellowship began in 1979. He has developed infrared spectrographs and cameras for the Keck Observatory, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and other platforms, enabling observations of star formation, active galactic nuclei, and exoplanets at wavelengths inaccessible from the ground.