Director of Astrovisualization, American Museum of Natural History

As the Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History, Carter Emmart directs the institution’s groundbreaking space shows and heads up the development of an interactive 3D atlas called The Digital Universe and the NASA-supported software to view it, called OpenSpace. He coordinates scientists, programmers, and artists to produce scientifically accurate yet visually stunning and immersive space experiences in AMNH’s Hayden Planetarium. Over the past two decades, he has directed six planetarium shows: “Passport to the Universe,” “The Search for Life: Are we Alone,” “Cosmic Collisions,” “Journey to the Stars,” “Dark Universe,” and “Worlds Beyond Earth.” Emmart’s interest in space began early, and at ten, he took astronomy courses in the old Hayden. As a child born into a family of artists, he naturally combined his love of science with his tendency for visualization. His first work was in architectural modeling, soon moving on to do scientific visualization for NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research before joining AMNH.