Webster Cash at Café Sci2

Dr. Webster Cash is Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences  &
Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He decided to forego his interest in medieval history at the age of 8 years when his parents took him to a public lecture on Project Ozma – the first SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project. A few years later, as a freshman at MIT he became an X-ray Astronomer and joined the ranks of Space Scientists, helping in the search for Black Holes. He graduated in Physics in 1973 and moved to the University of California at Berkeley where he completed his PhD in Physics, launching the first imaging Extreme Ultraviolet telescope on a sounding rocket. In 1979 he joined the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado where he has remained to this day, helping found the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy and even taking a turn as Department Chair.

Web loves space hardware. He believes that new instrumentation provides the key to new observations and new understanding of the Universe. He has spent much of his career building and flying sounding rockets with advanced instrumentation for space astronomy. He trains students in the hands-on art of developing space technology. On his quirkier days he likes to think of himself as a kind of Yoda: "For 800 years, Rocket Scientists have I trained."

Web lives in Boulder with Cindy, his wife of 30 years. They have three grown children, two of whom have run off to the Big Apple while the other is completing law school in Denver.