Macarena Garcia Marin

Dr. Macarena Garcia Marin is an Astrophysicist and Instrument Scientist for the European Space Agency and Deputy Project Scientist in the Webb Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Garcia Marin is from the Canary Islands, Spain, where beautiful dark skies and the presence of an astronomical observatory inspired her to become an astronomer. She pursued her undergraduate studies in the Canary Islands, and earned her PhD in Madrid, Spain. She then moved to Cologne, Germany, with a post-doctoral position to conduct multi-wavelength extragalactic studies, as well as studies of the black hole in the center of our galaxy. She also joined the JWST MIRI instrument Test Team and participated in all the ground testing and calibration campaigns up until the JWST launch.

In 2015 she joined the European Space Agency and moved to Baltimore to be part of the MIRI team at the Space Telescope Science Institute. There she has worked in the operations, calibration, and commissioning of MIRI, and between 2019 and 2022 served as team lead. More recently, in December 2022, she was appointed JWST Deputy project Scientist for the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Garcia Marin is an expert in mid-infrared imaging and spectroscopy and is part of international collaborations that use space and ground-based observatories to understand the origin and evolutions of our galaxies, from the dawn of the Universe to our own galactic center.