Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Chris Laws is an award-winning Teaching Professor of Astronomy at the University of Washington in the beautiful city of Seattle, where he and his family have made their home since 1998. He researches and lectures on a broad range of astronomical topics, from the nature of extrasolar planetary systems and the distribution of life in our universe, to the fundamental physics of time itself and our historical approaches to measuring and investigating astronomical phenomena. When he is not floating amidst the Carina Nebula, he plays and writes music, grows the spiciest of peppers in his garden, and finds as much time for reading as he can.