Notable Alumni

Bio

Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2019

It is every scientist’s dream to be the first to discover something. Max’s moment came in 2005 while working at the Space Telescope Science Institute. As he was cleaning and inspecting some Hubble Space Telescope images, two blips on the screen caught his attention. They were faint satellites moving around Pluto in the same direction as Charon, Pluto’s moon that was discovered in 1978. After Max worked with other scientists to verify the discovery, it was officially announced. Later Hubble observations in 2011 and 2012 revealed two more moons of Pluto. Asteroid “6815 Mutchler” was named in honor of Max’s role in these discoveries.

Max was featured in Florida Tech’s 60^thAnniversary special edition book, "60 for 60: Celebrating Sixty Years of Alumni at Florida Institute of Technology."

My "60 for 60" book entry