Dr. Gregory L. Matloff

Gregory L. Matloff, Ph.D., FBIS is emeritus associate and adjunct associate professor of physics at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and has coordinated the astronomy program at that institution.
 
Greg has consulted for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, is a Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, and is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
 
His pioneering research in solar-sail technology has been utilized by NASA in plans for extra-solar probes and in consideration of technologies to divert Earth-threatening asteroids. He served as guest professor at the University of Siena, Italy, in 1994. He has chaired many technical sessions and was honored by NYCCT as Scholar-on-Campus during the 2008–2009 academic year. In 1998, he was a winner of a SETI competition sponsored by the National Academy of Discovery Science.
 
Greg has authored or coauthored more than 100 research papers and nine books, which have been cited about 400 times. One of his books, The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer’s Guide to Interstellar Travel, was coauthored with MIT science-writer Dr. Eugene Mallove and helped establish interstellar-propulsion studies as a sub-division of applied physics. More recent books (Living Off the Land in Space: Green Roads to the Cosmos and Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth) coauthored with his artist wife C Bangs and NASA manager Les Johnson, have dealt with human space habitation and utilization. His 2008 book with Les Johnson and Italian researcher Dr. Giovanni Vulpetti, Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel, received an excellent review in Nature. Most recently he has published an artist’s book with C Bangs, Biosphere Extensions: Solar System Resources for the Earth.
 
Other books include Telescope Power: Fantastic Activities & Easy Projects for Young Astronomers, Deep Space Probes: To the Outer Solar System and Beyond, More Telescope Power: All New Activities and Projects for Young Astronomers, and The Urban Astronomer: A Practical Guide for Observers in Cities and Suburbs.
 
Greg earned his M.S. degree in Astronautical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Planetary Atmospheres, both from New York University.
 
Watch Solar Sails and Les Johnson, Greg Matloff, and C Bangs present “Paradise Regained”. Read Worldships: A Interview with Greg Matloff.