Barth Netterfield

Barth Netterfield is a professor in the departments of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Toronto.

His research is in the construction and use of balloon borne telescopes, which can achieve many of the benefits of space-based satellite telescopes, but more quickly and at a small fraction of the cost. In a series of adventures from the Antarctic to the Arctic, his projects have determined the age, geometry and content of the Universe, provided a new view of star formation in our Galaxy and determined the source of half of the starlight in the Universe. His team is currently constructing an instrument designed to detect gravitational waves emitted during the Big Bang.

Barth grew up in B.C., his Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University and was a Millikan fellow at CalTech. His awards include a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Canadian Association of Physicists Herzberg award and the NSERC Steacie award.