Name: Dr. Richard K. Barry
Formal Job Classification: Research Astrophysicist
Organization: Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory (Code 667)
What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
I specialize in gravitational microlensing of exoplanets and also black holes. Since 2019, I’ve worked as the observatory project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Tell us about your background.
My whole career has been a story of me constantly having to re-invent myself. I nearly failed out of high school.
With my brother’s encouragement, I started taking some night classes in math, and what better of a place to begin than where I had last left off – with high school algebra. One by one, I continued to take more coursework, and made sure to never miss an A.
Once I had taken all the math classes I could, I decided to continue my education and pursue my dream of becoming an astronaut. I completed a traditional five-year degree in engineering in three years. At the time, NASA was looking for new spacecraft engineers following the 1986 space shuttle Challenger accident, and of course, I was up for the challenge.
What was your path to Goddard?
In 1990, I helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope! While working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it dawned upon me that if I was serious about becoming an astronaut, I would need an advanced degree.
I was accepted to Johns Hopkins University’s master’s program in electrical engineering, in 1995. I walked into Goddard Space Flight Center with my résumé in hand until I finally got a position, as a lead power systems engineer for the X-ray Timing Explorer (later renamed the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer). I became very interested in building telescopes, so much so that NASA decided to send me back to school. This time for my doctorate in physics and astronomy from Johns Hopkins University.
With the 20th anniversary of the installation of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) happening this year, it’s important to note that the professor who led my dissertation at Hopkins was Holland Ford, who was the principal investigator for ACS. Just at that time I was working on my doctorate, the ACS had just been installed!
The astronaut thing did not work out, but things have an interesting way of coming full circle. As of 2019, I’m back with Hubble, this time as the observatory project scientist.
Who inspires you?
Carl Sagan. I purchased a paperback version of his book “Cosmos” when it first came out and have since read it, as well as all of his other books, multiple times.
When I was working on my bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington, I went to see him when he gave a talk. He signed my book and looked at this destroyed copy I possessed, and said “I can tell you’re really interested.”
At the end of Carl Sagan’s life – while he was sick – I sent him a letter and expressed how important his existence and work had been to helping me navigate my own path. He wrote me back!
What advice would you give your 16-year-old self?
Take two giant steps back, start over, and focus. What changed my life’s trajectory was simply making the decision to take action. It changed the entire course of my life.
By Matina Douzenis
NASA’s Goddard Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.