Jonathan McDowell was born in Atlanta, GA of British parents, and returned to the UK at the age of 6 weeks. Growing up in the US and the UK, he considers himself a true dual citizen. He attended Cambridge Unversity where he received a B.A. in Mathematics and a PhD in Astrophysics. He worked at Jodrell Bank radio astronomy observatory and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center before landing at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA. McDowell has made numerous radio and TV news programme appearances explaining activities in outer space. Asteroid (4589) McDowell is named after him.