Harvey Moseley '69

Growing up in rural Brunswick County, Virginia, Dr. Harvey Moseley ’69 never believed he would become a Senior Astrophysicist for NASA. As an academically advanced child, Moseley was introduced to five scholastically challenging high schools, and ultimately chose Episcopal because of its academic rigor, extracurricular activities, and financial assistance. He credits his ability to attend EHS to an anonymous donor who provided significant tuition assistance, “Without that support, I never would have been able to attend.”

 

Being at The High School led Moseley to develop relationships that fueled his love of science and math. He had a room in Bryan Library where he did optical work with friends that allowed him to master a wide range of experimental techniques and manufacturing processes.

 

Mr. Callaway’s and Mr. Lindsay’s math classes produced an affinity for stimulating coursework that Moseley says, “was exactly what [he] needed at the time.”

 

“Mr. Callaway was an institution at Episcopal, and he was absolutely a really wonderful teacher,” he recalled with sincerity.

 

Outside of his time at EHS, Moseley spent summers working on the family farm and building a small observatory working alongside his then high school friend Sarah Nash, who has been his wife for the last 50 years. The teenagers built the observatory from items they collected and created. 

 

One of the proudest accomplishments in Moseley’s career was building the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) with a 15-person team at NASA. Launched in November 1989, COBE was a satellite that, in layman’s terms, measured leftover residual light from the Big Bang. The complex satellite produced a precision map of the radiation, creating what he calls “the first baby pictures of the universe.” As cited from NASA’s website: In the 1990s, the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking described COBE’s findings as “the most important discovery of the century, if not of all time.”  

1500-man years of work yielded two Nobel prizes in physics for the two leaders of the COBE team, and a once in a lifetime opportunity for Moseley. “It was such an amazing experience to get those results and to have the conclusion be so spectacular,” the astrophysicist reminisced.

 

The COBE was a hallmark of Moseley’s career, but he is also credited with inventing and leading the development of cryogenic X-ray microcalorimeters, which are central to the scientific capability of current and future X-ray astrophysics missions and have found broad application in a wide range of fields in physics. He created and led the development of microshutter arrays that provide multi-object spectroscopy on the James Webb Space Telescope. This innovation allows the JWST to carry out one of its primary scientific objectives, the study of the evolution of the earliest galaxies in the universe.

He credits the drive to complete these difficult projects, among others, to his academic preparation at EHS. “The challenging academic work gave me the confidence to conquer the world, especially coming from a small, rural place,” he said. 

Moseley has not only conquered it, but also bettered it! In May 2022, he was awarded the James Craig Watson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences which is  presented every two years to acknowledge outstanding contributions to the science of astronomy. In announcing the award on its website, the Academy further described their selection of Moseley, “For applying creativity, a deep knowledge of physics, leadership, and perseverance to conceive and develop technologies and instruments used by astronomers worldwide to revolutionize cosmology and astronomy at X-ray and infrared wavelengths, while mentoring the next generation of astronomical pioneers.”

Technically a retired astrophysicist, Moseley now spends his time as the Vice President for Hardware Engineering at start-up Quantum Circuits, Inc. Clearly not one to take it easy in retirement, he is working with the company to develop the first practical quantum computer. 

Grateful to The High School for preparing him for a life he otherwise may not have known, Moseley is also thankful his years on the Hill provided him with what he considers some of his closest friends.

“One thing I learned in experimental physics is that you have all sorts of ideas and almost all of them are wrong,” he mused.  He advises all current EHS students to “not focus on every lost battle, but instead continue to learn, explore, and take advantage of additional opportunities.”