Dr. Ian P. Griffin is the British CEO of Science Oxford, in Oxford, UK. He is the former head of public outreach at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute. Griffin is a professional astronomer and public spokesman upon scientific matters.
Griffin began his professional life at University College London where he decided to pursue a career combining both astronomical research and public outreach. He was director of the Armagh Planetarium from 1990 to 1995. He then worked at Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory at Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida and Auckland Observatory in New Zealand before accepting the position as head of public outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, US.[1]
From 2004 to 2007 Griffin was director of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.[2]
In his time at Space Telescope, Griffin contributed to the observation and study of a scientifically significant binary asteroid system, known as 1998 WW31.[3] This was only the second such binary system discovered in the Kuiper Belt (the other being the Pluto and Charon system) and provided valuable data helping astronomers understand the mass and behaviour of objects in the Kuiper Belt.[4] Griffin also discovered (via search programmes using small telescopes) and had the privilege of naming of a number of main belt asteroids including 10924 (Mariagriffin), 23990 (Springsteen) and 33179 (Arsenewenger, named after the Arsène Wenger, the manager of Griffin's favorite football team, Arsenal).