D

Committee and Staff Biographical Information

H. JAY MELOSH, Chair, is a Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Physics, and Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Melosh’s previous positions include professor of planetary sciences at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona; associate professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology; and associate professor of geophysics at the State University of New York. Dr. Melosh has made many important contributions to Earth and planetary sciences, including definitive studies of the collisional origin of the Moon and the process of impact cratering. His other major contributions include acoustic fluidization, dynamic topography, and planetary tectonics. He is active in astrobiological studies relating chiefly to microorganism exchange between the terrestrial planets. Dr. Melosh is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his A.B. in physics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in physics and geology from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Melosh has previously served on committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, including the Committee on NASA Technology Roadmaps, the Committee to Review Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies, and the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration.

ALAN W. HARRIS is a senior scientist, retired, at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, and holds an honorary chair at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Dr. Harris leads research projects in solar system science, including observations and modeling of the physical properties of asteroids, and has pioneered radiometric data analysis techniques applicable to the study of small asteroids. Derivatives of his Near Earth Asteroid Thermal Model (NEATM) have been incorporated into data processing pipelines used by NASA’s NEOWISE project, and by researchers using NASA’s WISE and Spitzer space telescopes, as well as other facilities. Dr. Harris has served as chair of the European Space Agency (ESA) Near-Earth Object Mission Advisory Panel and as a member of ESA’s Solar System Exploration Working Group. He was the coordinator of the European Commission-funded NEOShield project and currently advises the German delegation to the UN-mandated International Asteroid Warning Network and Space Mission Planning Advisory Group. Dr. Harris received his Ph.D. and B.S. in physics from the University of Leeds, UK.

BHAVYA LAL is a research staff member at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI). Dr. Lal’s research and analysis focuses on space technology and policy and is frequently incorporated in national policy documents. Recent and ongoing projects include supporting the Office of Science and Technology Policy and

other federal agencies in developing a national space technology strategy, improving detection of near Earth objects (NEOs), evaluating a civilian space situational awareness capability, documenting global trends in space, and examining recent commercial activities in space, including their legal ramifications related to the Outer Space Treaty. Before joining STPI, Dr. Lal was president of C-STPS, LLC, a science and technology policy research and consulting firm in Waltham, Massachusetts. Prior to that, she was a researcher and the director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Studies at Abt Associates, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Lal holds a B.S. and M.S. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an M.S. from MIT’s Technology and Policy Program, and a Ph.D. in public policy and public administration from George Washington University. She has served on the National Academies Committee on Space Radiation Effects Testing Infrastructure for the U.S. Space Program, the Committee on Achieving Science Goals with CubeSats, and the Committee on Space-Based Additive Manufacturing of Space Hardware.

LUCY MCFADDEN is a physical scientist, emerita, at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where her research focused on the study of small bodies in the solar system, primarily asteroids and comets. Dr. McFadden was a science team member of the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission and co-investigator of the Deep Impact, EPOXI, and Dawn missions. Dr. McFadden was an editor of The Encyclopedia of the Solar System, first and second editions. She received her B.A. from Hampshire College, M.S. from MIT, and Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has previously served on the National Academies Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration and the Committee on Data Management and Computation.

MICHAEL MOMMERT is an assistant astronomer at Lowell Observatory. Dr. Mommert specializes in the physical characterization of asteroids and comets, mainly using thermal-infrared observations. He is the data analysis lead of a number of Spitzer Space Telescope observing programs characterizing the physical properties (diameters and albedos) of NEOs. Dr. Mommert also has an interest in the investigation of objects in the asteroid-comet continuum, data mining from archival data, the application of data science methods to scientific problems, and the development of open-source scientific software. He received his Ph.D. in geosciences from the Free University in Berlin and his M.Sc. in physics from the University of Heidelberg.

GEORGE RIEKE is a Regents Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona. Dr. Rieke has worked extensively in the development of innovative infrared detectors and instrumentation, and their astronomical applications, including the first infrared-optimized telescope. He was the principal investigator for the multiband imaging photometer, which provided imaging data at far-infrared wavelengths for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and is the lead scientist on the mid-infrared instrument for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Rieke earned his B.A. in physics from Oberlin College and his M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. He has previously served on the National Academies Astro2010 Panel on Electromagnetic Observations from Space.

ANDREW RIVKIN is a planetary astronomer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Rivkin’s research involves taking and analyzing infrared spectra of asteroids. He has researched asteroids for over 20 years, with 26 first-author peer-reviewed papers on asteroids and small bodies and as a co-author on an additional 55 peer-reviewed papers as of mid-2018. Many of these focused on NEOs specifically. In addition to these papers, Dr. Rivkin has led chapters in both the Asteroids III and Asteroids IV books, has led and contributed to chapters in other books, and has written a textbook on small bodies. He has led the update to the Small Bodies Assessment Group Science Goals Document. With a research focus of asteroids, including NEOs, Dr. Rivkin has been involved in many planetary defense studies over the years. He was a participant in the 2006 NASA Near-Earth Object Detection and Threat Mitigation Workshop in Vail and contributed to the final report, and he participated in several of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Planetary Defense Conferences since then. Dr. Rivkin is the investigation co-lead for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), now in Phase C. He earned his Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona.

DANIEL J. SCHEERES is the A. Richard Seebass Endowed Chair and professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. Dr. Scheeres has studied the dynamics of the asteroid environment from a scientific, engineering, and navigation perspective since 1992 and has been involved with NASA’s NEAR mission to asteroid Eros and the Japanese Hayabusa missions to asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu. He is currently a co-investigator on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu and leads the Radio Science team of that mission. Dr. Scheeres has published a Springer-Praxis book on orbital mechanics about small bodies titled Orbital Motion in Strongly Perturbed Environments: Applications to Asteroid, Comet and Planetary Satellite Orbiters. Asteroid 8887 is named “Scheeres” in recognition of his contributions to the scientific understanding of the dynamical environment about asteroids. Dr. Scheeres is a fellow of both the AIAA and the American Astronautical Society. He has been awarded the Dirk Brouwer Award from the American Astronautical Society. Dr. Scheeres earned his Ph.D. for aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. He has served on the National Academies Committee on Assessment of the U.S. Air Force’s Astrodynamic Standards and the NEO Mitigation Panel.

EDWARD TEDESCO is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Dr. Tedesco has been making and interpreting physical observations of asteroids since 1975. He was among the first to note that the size-frequency distributions for some asteroid families differed from that for nonfamily asteroids and that asteroid rotation rates are not inversely proportional to size, and to recognize the detailed compositional structure of the main asteroid belt. Dr. Tedesco played a key role in establishing the second-generation asteroid taxonomy, in the data reduction and publication of the IRAS Minor Planet Survey, and he was the first to model the efficiency of discovering NEOs using a space-based infrared sensor. Dr. Tedesco has made astrometric, light curve, multicolor photometry, phase curve, polarimetric, and radiometric observations using 0.4- to 8-meter ground-based telescopes and the IUE, IRAS, MSX, ISO, and Spitzer spacecraft (and was to have done the same on the WIRE mission). He was principal investigator on a project providing support for U.S. members of the Canadian NEOSSat mission. Dr. Tedesco received a B.S. in physics from St. John’s University, an M.S. in physics from Fordham University, an M.S. in astronomy from New Mexico State University, and a Ph.D. in astronomy from New Mexico State University.

STAFF

DWAYNE A. DAY, Study Director, a senior program officer for the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), has a Ph.D. in political science from the George Washington University. Dr. Day joined the National Academies as a program officer for the Space Studies Board (SSB). He served as an investigator for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003, was on the staff of the Congressional Budget Office, and worked for the Space Policy Institute at the George Washington University. He has also performed consulting for the Science and Technology Policy Institute of the Institute for Defense Analyses and for the U.S. Air Force. He is the author of Lightning Rod: A History of the Air Force Chief Scientist and editor of several books, including a history of the CORONA reconnaissance satellite program. He has held Guggenheim and Verville fellowships at the National Air and Space Museum and was an associate editor of the German spaceflight magazine Raumfahrt Concrete, in addition to writing for such publications as Novosti Kosmonavtiki (Russia), Spaceflight, Space Chronicle (United Kingdom), and the Washington Post. He has served as study director for over a dozen National Academies’ reports, including 3-D Printing in Space (2013), NASA’s Strategic Direction and the Need for a National Consensus (2012), Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 (2011), Preparing for the High Frontier—The Role and Training of NASA Astronauts in the Post-Space Shuttle Era (2011), Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies (2010), Grading NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Review (2008), and Opening New Frontiers in Space: Choices for the Next New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity (2008).

SARAH C. BROTHERS is an associate program officer with the ASEB and the SSB of the National Academies. In this role she manages federal advisory committees providing policy advice on diverse topics ranging from civil space research, to space system technical requirements, to innovation, diversity, and inclusion in government

agencies. Previously, Brothers worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University, where she conducted change analysis using synthetic aperture radar and images of Earth’s surface, and as an intern with BHP Billiton and Hess Corporation in petroleum exploration and production. She completed her doctoral research in geology, processing and analyzing ground- and orbital-based ground-penetrating radar data in geospatial environments with time-lapse surface imagery and topography. She holds a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Texas, Austin, and a B.A. in geology from Bryn Mawr College.