Dr. Willott will present the history and technical details of Canada's contribution, as a key JWST partner, in the design and construction of two key instruments used on the JWST: Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). The Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) allows the telescope the point at and focus on objects of interest. FGS allows JWST to determine position, locate celestial targets, track moving targets, and remain steadily locked or pointed, with very high precision. FGS's two main cameras are critical to JWST's ability to "see". The FGS is crucial to aligning and fine-tuning JWST's 6.5 meter mirror. The Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) determines the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, observes distant galaxies, and examines close together objects. It is sensitive to infrared wavelengths.
Chris Willott
PhD, Canadian James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project Scientist, National Research Council of Canada Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre
Dr. Willott received his B.Sc. in physics/astrophysics from the University of Birmingham in 1994 and his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Oxford in 1998. He joined Herzberg in 2002. Dr. Willott is the Canadian Webb Project Scientist and the Webb Archive Scientist at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre. Dr. Willott has worked on JWST for 16 years and as Canada's JWST Project Scientist to enable Canadian scientists to maximize the Government of Canada's investment in JWST. Dr. Willott is also the Principal Investigator of The Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS) which studies galaxies in the early universe. He continues to study the growth of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies over cosmic time.
