Short Bio for Lars Lindberg Christensen

Lars is an award-winning astronomer and science communicator. He has produced material for a multitude of different media from star shows, laser shows and slide shows, to web, print, TV and radio. Lars has more than 200 publications to his credit, most of them in popular science communication and in its theory. He has authored a dozen popular science books translated to more than ten languages. He has directed several documentaries and planetarium movies that have received critical claim around the world. Lars received the Tycho Brahe Medal in 2005 for his achievements in science communication.

Long Bio for Lars Lindberg Christensen

Lars is a science communication specialist heading the ESO education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD) in Munich, Germany. He is responsible for public outreach and education for the La Silla-Paranal Observatory, for ESO's part of ALMA (the largest and most expensive ground-based astronomical project), for the European Extremely Large Telescope (the largest optical telescope in the world), for ESA’s part of the Hubble Space Telescope and for the International Astronomical Union Press Office.

He obtained his Master’s Degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Before assuming his current position, he spent a decade working as a science communicator and technical specialist for Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen.

Lars has more than 200 publications to his credit, most of them in popular science communication and in its theory. His other productive interests lie in the areas of graphical communication, written communication, technical communication and scientific communication. He has written several books, for instance The Hands-On Guide to Science Communicators (Springer, 2006), Eyes on the Skies, Hidden Universe (both Springer, 2008) and Hubble – 15 Years of Discovery (Springer, 2006). His books have been translated to Finnish, Portuguese, Korean, Slovenian, Japanese, Danish, German and Chinese (Simplified & Traditional).

He has produced material for a multitude of different media from star shows, laser shows and slide shows, to web, print, TV and radio. His methodology is focussed on devising and implementing innovative strategies for the production of efficient science communication and educational material. This work involves working with highly skilled graphics people and technicians, some results of which are visible at: http://www.eso.org and http://www.spacetelescope.org

He is Press Officer for the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a founding member and former President of the IAU Commission 55/C2 Communicating Astronomy with the Public (http://www.communicatingastronomy.org ), manager of the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator project, executive editor of the peer-reviewed Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal, manager of the IAU International Year of Astronomy Secretariat, and the Executive producer and director of the science documentary movies Eyes on the Skies – 400 Years of Telescopic Discoveries (~440,000 copies distributed) and Hubble – 15 Years of Discovery (~840,000 copies distributed). Lars received the Tycho Brahe Medal in 2005 as the youngest recipient so far for his achievements in science communication.