Barth Netterfield

Barth Netterfield is a balloonatic.

A Professor in the departments of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Toronto, his work centers on the design and deployment of balloon-borne telescopes. Able to deliver many of the benefits of space-based satellite telescopes at a fraction of the cost, his two ton-plus creations have been used to, among other things, determine the age, geometry and content of the universe. He’s currently involved in projects designed to determine the role of magnetic fields in star formation and to detect the signature of gravitational waves created during the Big Bang.

A native of Surrey, British Columbia, Barth earned his undergraduate degree from Bethel College (1990), his Ph.D. in Physics and his PDF from Princeton University (1995-96) and was a Milliken Fellow at CalTech (1996-1998). His longest and most successful project? Twenty-three years of marriage and three children!