Richard Pogge

Richard Pogge is the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Vice Chair for Instrumentation at The Ohio State University's Department of Astronomy. He joined the faculty in 1992 after a postdoc at OSU (1989–1992). His research focuses on astronomical instrumentation, exoplanet detection via microlensing, and active galactic nuclei (AGN) studies. He leads the Imaging Sciences Laboratory and contributed to projects like the KELT telescope network and the MODS spectrographs for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).

• Education: Ph.D. (1988) in Astronomy & Astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz; M.S. (1985) in Astronomy from UC Santa Cruz; B.S. (1983) in Physics from Caltech.
• Instrumentation: SDSS-V fiber positioner systems, iLocater spectrograph for LBT, KMTNet microlensing surveys.

His research interests include refining metallicity calibrations for HII regions and measuring primordial helium abundance. He co-discovered the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 AGN subclass and contributed to the MicroFUN collaboration for exoplanet studies. He served on the National Academy of Sciences Astro2020 Decadal Survey panel (2019–2021).

• Awards: Named Distinguished Professor in 2021 for his contributions to astronomy research and education.

Grants and collaborations include roles in the CLASSYIR Treasury (JWST/MIRI) and AGN STORM projects. He advises on instrumentation development for ground-based observatories and leads teams advancing observational techniques for exoplanets and AGN.