Robert P. Kirshner (born August 15, 1949) is an American astronomer, Chief Program Officer for Science for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Clownes Research Professor of Science at Harvard University. Kirshner has worked in several areas of astronomy including the physics of supernovae, supernova remnants, the large-scale structure of the cosmos, and the use of supernovae to measure the expansion of the universe. Career Kirshner received his A.B. magna cum laude in Astronomy from Harvard College in 1970, where he also won a Bowdoin Prize for Useful and Polite Literature. He earned his Ph.D., also in Astronomy, from Caltech in 1975. He then worked as a postdoc at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he rose to become Professor and Chairman of the Astronomy Department and helped to build the 2.4 meter Hiltner Telescope. Whilst at Michigan, he received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and won the Henry Russel Award. In 1985, he moved to the Harvard Astronomy Department as Professor of Astronomy (1985–2016), where he served as Chairman of the Department from 1990-1997 and as the head of the Optical and Infrared Division of the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. from 1997-2003. He was appointed Clownes Professor of Science in 2001, Master of Quincy House, one of Harvard’s undergraduate residences, from 2001-2007 and Harvard College Professor (2004–2009). He helped Harvard join the Magellan Observatory in Chile and the Giant Magellan Telescope project. In July, 2015 he was appointed Chief Program Officer for Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where he is leading the team responsible for distributing more than $100 million per year for research and technology that enables fundamental scientific discoveries. At the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Kirshner is an observer on the Thirty Meter International Observatory board of directors. Achievements In 1981, along with Augustus Oemler, Jr., Paul Schechter, and Stephen Shectman, Kirshner discovered the Boötes Void in a survey of galaxy redshifts. He led work on SN 1987A, the brightest supernova since Kepler's in 1604, using the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite in 1987 and the Hubble Space Telescope after its launch in 1990. In the 1990s, together with Oemler, Schechter, Shectman and others he participated in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey, a pioneering 35,000 galaxy survey using fiber optics and plug plates. Kirshner is a co-author of 392 refereed articles