C
Biographies of Speakers, Moderators, Planning Committee, Rapporteur, and Reviewers
GREGORY BENFORD is a professor of physics and astronomy at University of California, Irvine. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Phi Beta Kappa, and was a visiting fellow at Cambridge University. In 1995 he received the Lord Prize for contributions to science. A fellow of the American Physical Society, his fiction has won many awards, including the Nebula Award for his novel Timescape. In 2007 he was awarded the Asimov Memorial Award for Popularizing Science.
STEVEN A. BENNER is a distinguished fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME). Dr. Benner’s research interests include chemical genetics, synthetic biology, paleogenetics, astrobiology, systems biology, and the connection of natural history to the physical sciences. His research group at FfAME initiated synthetic biology as a field, and was the first to synthesize a gene for an enzyme and use organic synthesis to prepare the first artificial genetic systems. Dr. Benner’s research has led to promising drug development leads through the invention of dynamic combinatorial chemistry, which combines ideas from different areas of chemistry and biology to discover small molecule therapeutic leads. He also established paleomolecular biology, where researchers resurrect ancestral proteins from extinct organisms for study in the laboratory. Dr. Benner was a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellow, a Sloan Foundation fellow, recipient of the Nola Summer Award, Anniversary Prize of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, and Sigma Xi Senior Faculty Award. He also sat on numerous National Research Council (NRC) committees, such as the Committee on the Astrophysical Context of Life and the Committee on the Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Sciences. Dr. Benner received his B.S. and M.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.
LINDA BILLINGS is a research professor at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. She does communication research for NASA’s astrobiology program in the Science Mission Directorate, is a principal investigator for the NASA Astrobiology Program, and also advises NASA’s planetary protection officer and lead scientist for Mars exploration on communications. Dr. Billings’s research interests and expertise include mass communication, science communication, risk communication, rhetorical analysis, journalism studies, and social studies of science. Her research has focused on the role that journalists play in constructing the cultural authority of scientists, the rhetorical strategies that scientists and journalists employ in communicating about science, and the rhetoric of space exploration. As a researcher, she has worked on communication strategy, media analysis, and audience research for NASA’s astrobiology, Mars exploration, and planetary protection programs. As a journalist, she has covered energy, environment, and labor relations as well as aerospace. Dr. Billings was a member of the staff for the National Commission on Space (1985-1986), appointed by President Reagan to develop a long-term plan for space exploration. She earned her Ph.D. in mass communication from Indiana State University. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the recipient of Outstanding Achievement and Lifetime Achievement awards from Women in Aerospace.
JEFF M. BINGHAM is senior advisor on space and aeronautics on the Republican staff of the Subcommittee on Science and Space of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the U.S. Senate. He served as chief of staff for Senator Jake Garn from 1974-1990, and throughout that service was heavily involved in the Senator’s space-related activity. Mr. Bingham was also a NASA consultant and participant in the Synthesis Group, which was charged with developing alternative architectures for missions to the Moon and Mars under the Space Exploration Initiative. He was a senior policy analyst for SAIC and supported the Johnson Space Center New Initiatives Office in strategic planning and exploration policy activities. In 1994 to 1996, Mr. Bingham served as legislative coordinator for the International Space Station Program. From 1996 to 1999, he managed the Space Station Information Center. In 2000, Mr. Bingham supported the Bush-Cheney NASA Transition Team and was appointed by the White House Personnel Office as special assistant to NASA Chief of Staff Courtney A. Stadd. Mr. Bingham then served as associate administrator for legislative affairs at NASA Headquarters. In 2002, he was appointed senior advisor/special assistant to the NASA administrator. Mr. Bingham left NASA in 2004 and spent a year writing, speaking, and consulting. In 2005, Mr. Bingham accepted the appointment as staff director for the Subcommittee on Science and Space, which had authorization and oversight jurisdiction for NASA and NSF. In that capacity, Mr. Bingham was charged with the development and drafting of the 2005 NASA Authorization Act, which was signed into law on December 30, 2005. During the 110th Congress, Mr. Bingham assumed his current position and in that capacity participated in drafting, consideration, and passage of the 2008 NASA Authorization Act. With the reorganization of the committee in the 111th Congress, he continues to provide staff support at the full committee level and for the newly reorganized subcommittee. In that capacity, he served as one of the principal staff involved in drafting and securing passage of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010.
ROGER BLANDFORD is director of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University. He is a native of England and took his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Cambridge University. Following postdoctoral research at Cambridge, Princeton University, and University of California, Berkeley, he took up a faculty position at the California Institute of Technology in 1976, where he was appointed as the Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Astrophysis. In 2003 he became the first director of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and the Luke Blossom Chair in the School of Humanities and Science. His research interests include black hole astrophysics, cosmology, gravitational lensing, cosmic ray physics, and compact stars. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
ROGER-MAURICE BONNET, executive director of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), is a solar physicist mostly known for his early work in the study and observation of the ultraviolet radiation. His early work concerned the study of solar radiation and solar irradiance. He has also been involved in the problems of solar radiation forcing on Earth. As an instrumentalist, he designed several original telescopes and spectrometers. He was responsible for the design of the telescope that obtained the first pictures of a comet nucleus (Halley) with the European Space Agency (ESA) Giotto probe in 1986. From 1969 to 1983, he was the director of the Laboratoire de Physique Stellaire et Planétaire of the French CNRS (now re-named Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, IAS). He then became director of ESA’s scientific programme from 1983 until 2001, where he defined and led the Horizon 2000 program and established the basis and structure of the Living Planet Earth Sciences program. Dr. Bonnet became director general for science at CNES, the French space agency, in 2002 and is presently the executive director of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. He is president of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and a member of the Royal Scientific Academy of Sweden and the Société Royale des Sciences de Liège and of the International Academy of Astronautics, from which he received the Von Karman award in 2009. He is also doctor honoris causa of the Universities of
London and Liège, and officier of the French Légion d’Honneur. He is the author of more than 150 scientific papers in solar physics, astronomy, and space science, as well as of several books, in particular Les Horizons Chimériques and Surviving 100,000 Centuries, Can We Do It?, co-authored with L. Woltjer.
ELIZABETH R. CANTWELL is director for the mission development for the Engineering Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and is the director for national security initiatives at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Prior to joining Oak Ridge, she was the deputy division leader for science and technology in the International, Space, and Response Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Cantwell has served as the section leader for the Micro and Nanotechnology Center at LLNL. She began her career building life support systems for human spaceflight missions with the NASA. She is a member of the NRC’s Space Studies Board, chair of the Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, and a former member of the Committee on NASA’s Bioastronautics Critical Path Roadmap, the Space Station Panel of the Review of NASA Strategic Roadmaps, the Committee on Technology for Human/Robotic Exploration and Development of Space, and the Committee on Advanced Technology for Human Support in Space.
DEXTER COLE is vice president of programming for the Science Channel where he oversees the programming strategy for the network and is responsible for securing acquisitions that will fuel the network’s programming pipeline. He also manages members of the scheduling and development teams. Mr. Cole will returned to Discovery after a 2-year term as vice president of research for TV One, where he was responsible for network strategy in the areas of programming and consumer research. He joined TV One in 2008 and was instrumental in growing the network’s prime time ratings by double digits. Prior to working for TV One, Mr. Cole was employed at Discovery Communications, LLC, for 10 years, and during his initial tenure managed research for each of the five major Discovery networks (Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and Discovery Health Channel). Having spent the majority of his time at Discovery supporting the TLC network, he last served as vice president for TLC Research and was instrumental in the launch of successful TLC series. He and his team were also responsible for the management of both the qualitative and quantitative research initiatives in the creation of TLC’s award-winning “Life Lessons” brand campaign. Prior to joining Discovery, Mr. Cole worked in corporate research at GEICO and in production at WTTG-FOX TV in Washington, D.C. He received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor of arts, magna cum laude, in journalism and an M.B.A.
ALAN DRESSLER is an observational astronomer at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution. His principal areas of research cover the formation and evolution of galaxies and the study of star populations of distant galaxies. Dr. Dressler has made significant contributions in understanding galaxy formation and evolution, including effects of the environment on galaxy morphology. He was a leader in the identification of the “great attractor” that causes a large distortion of the Hubble expansion. From 1993-1995 Dr. Dressler chaired the AURA committee “HST & Beyond: Exploration and the Search for Origins” that presented NASA with the report A Vision for Ultraviolet-Optical-Infrared Space Astronomy. NASA embraced the report’s three recommendations—the extension of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) mission, the building of a infrared-optimized successor to HST (the James Webb Space Telescope) to study the birth of galaxies in the early universe, and the development of technology for space telescopes capable of finding Earth-like planets around neighboring stars—which now form a substantial component of the NASA program in astrophysics. Dr. Dressler is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, served on the NRC Committee on Setting Priorities for NSF-Sponsored Large Research Facility Projects and chaired the NRC Panel on Optical and Infrared Astronomy from the Ground of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee.
MARGARET FINARELLI is a senior fellow in the Center for Aerospace Policy Research at George Mason University. In this capacity she has organized a number of space exploration related workshops including one that focused on constituency building. From 2000-2006, Ms. Finarelli was the International Space University’s vice president for North American Operations. Before that, her career with NASA and other U.S. government agencies focused on strategy development and negotiations in the fields of domestic space policy and international relations in science and technology. At NASA (1981-2000), she rose to the position of associate administrator for policy coordination and international relations. She played a major role at NASA in developing the initial concepts for the international partnerships in the International Space Station program, and she led the U.S. team conducting the first round of international negotiations that resulted in the agreements governing NASA’s cooperation with Europe, Japan, and Canada. Ms. Finarelli’s has served on the NRC Committee on Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions, the Committee on Science Opportunities Enabled by NASA’s Constellation System, and the Committee for the Review of NASA Science Mission Directorate Science Plan.
LENNARD A. FISK is the Thomas M. Donahue Distinguished University Professor of Space Science in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan. He is an active researcher in both theoretical and experimental studies of the solar atmosphere and its expansion into space to form the heliosphere. Dr. Fisk was the associate administrator for space science and applications and chief scientist at NASA (1987-1993), and from 1977 to 1987, he served as professor of physics and vice president for research and financial affairs at the University of New Hampshire. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the board of directors of the Orbital Sciences Corporation, co-founder of the Michigan Aerospace Corporation, and a former chair of the board of trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Fisk earned his degree from the University of California, San Diego. His NRC service includes chair of the Space Studies Board, co-vice chair of the Committee on the Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program, and membership on the Committee on Scientific Communication and National Security, the Committee on Fusion Science Assessment, the Committee on International Space Programs, Air Force Physics Research Committee, and the Committee on Solar and Space Physics.
LUCY FORTSON is an associate professor of physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. A member of the VERITAS and CTA very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy collaborations, Dr. Fortson studies active galactic nuclei (AGN) using multi-wavelength observations to determine the source of gamma-ray emission from AGN and the evolution of the AGN host galaxies. She is also deeply committed to improving the science literacy of all Americans through her role on the Executive Committee of the Citizen Science Alliance and the Zooniverse project (www.zooniverse.org). With projects such as Galaxy Zoo, the Zooniverse provides opportunities for volunteer citizens to contribute to discovery research by using their pattern matching skills to perform simple data analysis tasks and to become more deeply engaged in the science research through social networking and simple data processing tools. Dr. Fortson was recently the vice president for research at the Adler Planetarium where she held a joint research position at the University of Chicago. Dr. Fortson graduated with a B.A. in physics and astronomy from Smith College and received her Ph.D. in high-energy physics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served on numerous local and national committees, including the NRC’s 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey and the Astrophysics Science Subcommittee, the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Capital Committee, NSF’s Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Advisory Committee, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory’s Education and Public Outreach Review Committee.
HEIDI B. HAMMEL is senior research scientist and co-director at the Space Sciences Institute and an independent research and education organization based in Boulder, Colorado. Her primary research interests are the outer planets and their satellites, with a specific focus on observational techniques. Dr. Hammel is a leading expert on the planet Neptune and was a member of the Imaging Science Team during the Voyager 2 spacecraft’s encounter with that planet in 1989. For the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994, Dr. Hammel led the HST team that investigated Jupiter’s atmospheric response to the collisions. Her latest research has focused on the imaging of Neptune and Uranus with HST and on ground-based observations of Uranus. Dr. Hammel was elected a fellow of AAAS in 2000 and received the Sagan Medal of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public in 2002. In addition, Asteroid 1981 EC20 was renamed 3530 Hammel in her honor. Dr. Hammel was profiled by the New York Times in 2008 and Newsweek magazine in 2007 and was identified as one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover magazine in 2002. She received her Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Hawaii. Dr. Hammel was the chair of the NRC’s Giant Planets Panel of the Planetary Science Decadal Survey.
JOAN JOHNSON-FREESE is chair of the Department of National Security Decision Making at the Naval War College. Prior to that, she held the following positions: chair of the Transnational Studies Department at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii; faculty member at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama; and director of the Center for Space Policy and Law at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Johnson-Freese has focused her research and writing on security studies generally, and space programs and policies specifically, including issues relating to technology transfer and export, missile defense, transparency, space and regional development, transformation, and globalization. She is on the editorial board of China Security and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She has testified before Congress concerning U.S.-Sino security issues concerning space. Dr. Johnson-Freese’s most recent books are Space as a Strategic Asset (2007) and Heavenly Ambition: Will America Dominate Space? (2009).
MARC KAUFMAN is a science writer and editor at the Washington Post, though at heart he sees himself as a foreign correspondent. His book on astrobiology, First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth (2011), is described as a remarkable, unfolding story of science’s search for the beginnings of life on Earth and the probability that it exists elsewhere in our universe. Before joining the Post in 1999, Mr. Kaufman was a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 17 years. He did a tour in India for the Inquirer, spent a lot of time in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, and returned to Afghanistan for the Post after 9/11. Given his foreign-correspondent instincts, Mr. Kaufman managed to turn his first contact reporting into a global affair, making trips to Alaska, Australia, Chile, Death Valley, California, England, Florida, Idaho, Italy, Japan, Louisiana, and South Africa, among other places. He has reported for the Post on topics ranging from the BP oil spill to the search for organics on Mars, plans for space tourism, and the Kepler mission’s extrasolar planet discoveries.
CHARLES F. KENNEL is a distinguished professor of atmospheric science and director emeritus in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Kennel was the founding director of the UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initiative, an all-campus effort embracing teaching, research, campus operations, and public outreach, and is now chairman of its international advisory board. His research covers plasma physics, space plasma physics, solar-terrestrial physics, plasma astrophysics, and environmental science and policy. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. He was a member of the NASA Advisory Council from 1998 to 2006, its chair from 2001-2005, and is presently chair of the California Council on Science and Technology. He has had visiting appointments to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder), the Ecole Polytechnique (Paris),
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena), Space Research Institute (Moscow), and the University of Cambridge (U.K.). He is a recipient of the James Clerk Maxwell Prize (American Physical Society), the Hannes Alfven Prize (European Geophysical Society), the Aurelio Peccei Prize (Accademia Lincei), and the NASA Distinguished Service and Distinguished Public Service Medals. He was the 2007 C.P. Snow Lecturer at Christ’s College, Cambridge (U.K.). Dr. Kennel has served on numerous NRC committees and boards, including the Committee on NASA’s Beyond Einstein Program: An Architecture for Implementation (co-chair), the Committee on Global Change Research (chair), the Committee on Fusion Science Assessment (chair), the Board on Physics and Astronomy (chair), the Panel to Review the National Space Science Data Center/World Data Center-A for Rockets and Satellites, the Committee on Cooperation with the USSR in Solar Activity, Solar Wind, Terrestrial Effects, and Solar Acceleration (co-chair), the Plasma Science Committee (chair), and the Air Force Physics Research Committee.
ANDREW LAWLER is a contributing writer with Science magazine and freelance writer for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Discover, and other publications. He began to cover the space program in 1984 for The Futurist Magazine. Later he was associate editor of Space Business News and then founding editor of Space Station News. In 1989, he joined the first staff of Space News, where he covered NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Defense Department, the White House, Congress, and international space programs. From 1994 until 2009, he was a senior writer at Science, following a host of space and science beats. During his quarter century writing about space, Mr. Lawler has interviewed every NASA administrator as well as many chiefs of other space agencies, sat through countless congressional hearings on Capitol Hill, and written about space-related news in Europe, Japan, Russia, China, and India.
MOLLY MACAULEY is vice president for research and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF), a research organization established upon recommendation of a U.S. presidential commission in 1952 and dedicated to economic and policy analyses of the health of the nation’s natural and environmental resources. Dr. Macauley’s research at RFF has covered studies on economics and policy issues of new technology, the valuation of non-priced resources, the design of incentive arrangements to improve space resource use, and the appropriate relationship between public and private endeavors in space research, development, and commercial enterprise. Dr. Macauley serves as a visiting professor in the Department of Economics at Johns Hopkins University and has previously served in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton University. She has frequently testified before Congress and serves on many national-level committees and panels. She served on the NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, the Panel on Earth Science Applications and Societal Needs, and the Science Panel of the Review of NASA Strategic Roadmaps.
STEPHEN MAUTNER is executive editor of the National Academies Press (NAP) in Washington, D.C. NAP operates as publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council—an associated group of private institutions chartered by Congress to advise the U.S. federal government on science, technology, and health policy. In addition to his work publishing studies and reports of the National Academies, Mr. Mautner has a role in communications projects designed to make individual or collected works of the institution accessible and informative for more general audiences. This has included the creation of a trade science book imprint, the Joseph Henry Press, and more recently the development of a website series on science, engineering, and health topics of current interest. He received his B.A. from Brown University and an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University.
BERRIEN MOORE III is dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. He is the former director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire and former executive director of Climate Central. Dr. Moore’s research focuses on the carbon cycle, global biogeochemical cycles, global change, and policy issues in the area of the global environment. From 1998 to 2002 he served as chair of the Science Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and served as the lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Third Annual Report that was released in 2001. In 2001 he chaired the Global Change Open Science Conference and is one of the four architects of the Amsterdam Declaration on Global Change. He has simultaneously served on and chaired numerous NASA and NOAA committees and has served on NRC committees, including the Committee on Global Change Research, which produced the landmark report Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade (1999). Dr. Moore is a member of the Space Studies Board and served as a co-chair of the NRC Committee for Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future.
CHRISTIE NICHOLSON is a science journalist based in New York City. For Scientific American, she hosts podcasts for 60-Second Psych and 60-Second Science and produces 60-Second Earth. As an online contributor at Scientific American, Ms. Nicholson launched their first online community and helped develop two video series, Instant Egghead and The Monitor. In 2010 she spoke on brain-machine interfaces at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. She is an on-air contributor to Web and television shows for Slate, Scientific American, Discovery Channel, and Science Channel. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, she co-created the “Science of Sex” website that won two Webby Awards. Ms. Nicholson has spoken at many organizations about the upheaval in traditional communication due to the Web, including NSF, the New York Academy of Sciences, Rockefeller University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Currently a contributing editor at Scientific American, she teaches an intensive program in Web journalism each summer at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
MILES O’BRIEN is a 30-year broadcast news veteran who has successfully melded a talent for telling complex stories in accessible terms with a lifelong passion for aviation, space, science, and technology. Based in New York City, he owns a production company that creates, produces, and distributes compelling stories across all media platforms. He is the science correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and chief correspondent for the NSF series Science Nation and the Discovery Science Channel series Innovation Nation. He has done several documentaries for PBS and appears on the radio serving as a frequent guest anchor of “The Takeaway” and “The Leonard Lopate Show” on WNET/New York. He is managing editor of “This Week in Space”—a popular webcast found at www.SpaceflightNow.com. In partnership with that site, he has pioneered web-based live, extended coverage of space shuttle launches that have lured a global audience of more than 200,000 viewers. Mr. O’Brien is also a member of the NASA Advisory Council, chairing its Education and Public Outreach Committee. He is currently working on a documentary and book on the space shuttle program and the rise of a private sector space industry. For nearly 17 years he worked as a correspondent, anchor, and producer for CNN, based in Atlanta and New York. At various times he was CNN’s science, space, aviation, technology, and environment correspondent. During his time at CNN, he also anchored a myriad of news and talk programs, including Science and Technology Week, CNN Saturday Morning and CNN Sunday Morning, Talkback Live, Headline News Primetime, CNN Live From … and CNN American Morning. Mr. O’Brien has received three Emmy awards, DuPont and Peabody awards, and numerous other prestigious awards over the years for his coverage of hurricanes, wars, and politics in addition to his coverage of space, aviation, science, technology, and the environment. He may be best known for his coverage of the U.S. space program. In 2003 he led the CNN’s acclaimed coverage of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, staying on the air live for 16 solid hours. Mr. O’Brien has covered every major space story in the past 20 years: the repair missions to the HST; the shuttle dockings at Mir; the launch of the first space station
crew from Kazakhstan; several robotic landings on Mars, and the private sector endeavors of Burt Rutan and others. In 1998 he co-anchored CNN’s coverage of John Glenn’s return to space with broadcast veteran Walter Cronkite. In 2000 he produced, shot, and wrote a 1-hour documentary on the intricate, sometimes-perilous process of readying a space shuttle for flight, Terminal Count: What it Takes to Make the Space Shuttle Fly, which aired in 2001.
ROBERT T. PAPPALARDO is a senior research scientist in the Planetary Science Division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology. He also holds visiting faculty positions in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology and in the Department of Geological Sciences and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research interests focus on the study of processes that have shaped the icy satellites of the outer solar system, particularly Jupiter’s Europa. He is also involved in the study of the nature, origin, and evolution of bright grooved terrain on Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede, specifically the style of tectonism. In addition to these projects, he is interested in the geological implications of geyser-like activity on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. He is currently the project scientist for the extended mission of the Cassini spacecraft. He was formerly an affiliate member of the Galileo Imaging Team and oversaw many of the Galileo observations of Jupiter’s icy Galilean satellites. Dr. Pappalardo’s NRC service has included membership on the co-chair of the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life, the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration, and the Committee on Solar System Exploration Strategy. He is currently a member of the Space Studies Board
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON is a science fiction writer, best known for the Mars trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. He holds a Ph.D. in literature from UCSD and attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop. He has published 20 books, which have been translated into 23 languages. His books have been awarded 11 awards in the science fiction field, including the Hugo and Nebula awards. Dr. Robinson was chosen by NSF to go to Antarctica as part of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and is involved in the Sequoia Parks Foundation’s Artists in the Back Country program.
DIETRAM A. SCHEUFELE is Professor and John E. Ross Chair in Science Communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is co-principal investigator of the NSF-funded Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University and affiliated with the University of Wisconsin’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center on Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale. Dr. Scheufele co-chairs the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, a joint committee of AAAS and the American Bar Association, and is a former member of the Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group to the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Prior to joining University of Wisconsin, Madison, he was a tenured faculty member at Cornell University. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University.
SARA SEAGER is the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Planetary Science and Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Seager’s research focuses on theoretical models of atmospheres and interiors of all kinds of exoplanets. Her research has introduced many new ideas to the field of exoplanet characterization, including work that led to the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere. She was part of a team that co-discovered the first detection of light emitted from an exoplanet and the first spectrum of an exoplanet. Professor Seager is the 2007 recipient of the American Astronomical Society’s Helen B. Warner Prize. Before joining MIT in 2007, she spent 4 years on the senior research staff at the Carnegie Institution of Washington preceded by 3 years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Her B.Sc. is from the University of Toronto and her Ph.D. is from Harvard University.
MARCIA S. SMITH is president of the Space and Technology Policy Group, LLC, in Arlington, Virginia, which specializes in policy analysis of civil, military, and commercial space programs and other technology areas. She is also the founder and editor of the website SpacePolicyOnline.com. From March 2006 to March 2009, Ms. Smith was director of the Space Studies Board of the NRC and from January 2007 to March 2009 was director of the NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. Prior to working for the NRC, Ms. Smith was a senior level specialist in aerospace and telecommunications policy at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. She worked at CRS from 1975 to 2006, except for a 1-year leave of absence from 1985 to 1986 while she served as executive director of the U.S. National Commission on Space. The commission, created by Congress and its members appointed by the president, developed long-term (50-year) goals for the civilian space program under the leadership of (the late) former NASA Administrator Thomas Paine. Before joining CRS, Ms. Smith worked in the Washington, D.C., office of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (then headquartered in New York). A graduate of Syracuse University, Ms. Smith is the author or co-author of more than 220 reports and articles on space, nuclear energy, and telecommunications and Internet issues.
EDWARD C. STONE is the David Morrisroe Professor of Physics and vice provost for special projects at the California Institute of Technology and a former director of JPL. Since 1972, Dr. Stone has served as the Voyager chief scientist in the exploration of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and continues to lead the study of the outer heliosphere as the two Voyager spacecraft continue their journey to interstellar space. As a principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft and co-investigator of five others, he has studied energetic ions from the Sun and cosmic rays from the galaxy and leads the Advanced Composition Explorer mission that is stationed Sun-ward of Earth, reporting real-time observations of approaching space weather. He has also had oversight of the construction and operation of the two 10-meter W.M. Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and of the design development of the Thirty-Meter Telescope. Dr. Stone is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, past president of the International Academy of Astronautics, a former vice president of COSPAR, and on the board of the W.M. Keck Foundation. Among his scientific awards and honors, he has received the National Medal of Science from President Bush (1991) and three NASA Distinguished Service Medals. In 1996, asteroid (5481) was named after him.
JEAN-PIERRE SWINGS is an honorary professor at the University of Liège (Belgium) where he obtained his master’s degree in space engineering and his Ph.D. and D.Sc. in astrophysics. Between the latter two, Dr. Swings spent 3 years of post-doctoral fellowships in JILA (formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics) in Boulder, Colorado, and at the Hale Observatories in Pasadena, California. His subjects of interest include solar physics, emission-line and/or infrared excess objects, extragalactic astrophysics, space research, (very) large telescopes and their instrumentation, and solar system exploration. He gradually switched from observational astrophysics to “astropolitics,” as general secretary of the International Astronomical Union and as a member of numerous committees of the ESA of the European Southern Observatory, where he was a council member for 17 years and involved in the advisory structure of the Very Large Telescope project and the selection of its site. He was a member of the European Astronomical Society where he was one of the four founders with Lodewijk Woltjer. Dr. Swings is currently chair of the European Space Sciences Committee (ESSC) of the European Science Foundation (ESF) and member of the Space Advisory Group of the European Commission 7th Framework Program.
JOAN VERNIKOS was the director of the former Life and Biomedical Sciences and Applications Division at NASA Headquarters from 1993 until 2000. Prior to this, she was on staff at NASA’s Ames Research Center and was an assistant professor of pharmacology at Ohio State University Medical School. While at NASA, Dr. Vernikos led the research that developed the framework for determining how spaceflight and Earth’s gravity affect the human body. She was the first to carry out head-down bed-rest studies in women and compare the changes in fluid and electrolyte regulation and their post-bed-rest
orthostatic response to that of men. For this work and her leadership in the space sciences, she received numerous awards, including the Strughold and Leverett Awards from the Aerospace Medical Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Women in Aerospace. After leaving NASA in 2000, Dr. Vernikos began a consulting company, Thirdage LLC.
CHARLES WOODWARD is a professor of astronomy at the University of Minnesota. He is an infrared astronomer who conducts studies on astronomical dust particles produced in the atmosphere of evolved stars and cometary dust in the solar system. He is a board member (U.S. representative) and incoming chair of the International Gemini Observatory and has chaired the American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy. Dr. Woodward served as a presidential faculty fellow at the University of Wyoming where he was an associate professor and a NSF fellow. His published research has covered infrared spectroscopy, star formation, novae, and comets. In 1997, he co-authored an article on the baffling halo emission from Galaxy NGC5907 for Nature. Dr. Woodward served on the NRC Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Committee on Review of Progress in Astronomy and Astrophysics toward the Decadal Vision, and the Committee on NASA Astrophysics Performance Assessment.
JEAN-CLAUDE WORMS is head of the Space Sciences Unit of the ESF, managing the ESSC and all space-related programmes of the ESF. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University Paris 6 and was assistant professor in physics and astronomy in Paris and Versailles from 1989 to 1992. He was associate researcher to several laboratories in France. He worked in radiative transfer in granular media, pre-planetary aggregation and space debris, and was principal investigator on the PROGRA2 facility (polarimetry of dust clouds in microgravity), LIBRIS project (in-orbit optical detection of space debris), and co-investigator of the ESA (Interactions in Cosmic and Atmospheric Particle Systems facility (study of particle systems on the International Space Station). He has been main scientific organiser and editor of solar system sessions in COSPAR scientific assemblies since 1998, and he is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal on Nanotechnologies. In 1994, Dr. Worms was a consultant for Dassault Aviation on the state-of-the-art French civilian research in infrared and synthetic aperture radar imaging. He is involved in ESA and European Commission high-level science advisory structures and has participated with an observer status to ESA’s ministerial conferences since 1999. As a result of the specific structure of the ESSC, which reflects the broad spectrum of space-related disciplines, Dr. Worms is dealing with strategic planning, program evaluation and reviewing, and intelligence monitoring in most sectors of space sciences, including space policy and global monitoring for environment and security.
A. THOMAS YOUNG is retired executive vice president of Lockheed Martin. Mr. Young previously was president and chief operating officer of Martin Marietta Corporation. Prior to joining industry, Mr. Young worked for 21 years at NASA, where he directed the Goddard Space Flight Center, was deputy director of the Ames Research Center, and directed the Planetary Program in the Office of Space Science at NASA headquarters. Mr. Young received high acclaim for his technical leadership in organizing and directing national space and defense programs, especially the Viking program. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was a member of the NASA Advisory Council. He is a former member of the NRC Office of Science and Engineering Personnel Advisory Committee, the Committee on Supply Chain Integration: New Roles and Challenges for Small and Medium-Sized Companies, and the Committee on a New Science Strategy for Solar System Exploration, and he served as chair of the Committee for Technological Literacy, the steering committees for the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey and the Planetary Science Decadal Survey.
