#SoCaltech: Chuck Steidel

“One thing that was unusual about my undergraduate education is that I really liked my nonscience, nonmath classes, and I took as many of them as I could fit in my schedule. I took a lot of history and a lot of classes in the English department. When I read a book, I never pick up a book about science, not ever. Maybe it’s just because I have enough of it in the rest of my life. But I still like history a lot, and that’s why I think I became interested in the history of the universe, the far-out stuff, the stuff where you were actually looking back to times that we didn’t know anything about. That seemed like the ideal combination of science and history. I want to get people excited about the fact that they can see the entire history of the formation of things similar to the Milky Way galaxy. And it’s all there right in front of us for us to look at.”

—Chuck Steidel (PhD ’90) is the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy. You can now watch his February 8, 2023, Watson Lecture, “Galactic Paleontology with JWST: Finding Living Fossils in the Ancient Universe”online. To view other Watson Lectures, visit Caltech’s YouTube channel.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.