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Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report (2008)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

« Previous: Appendix A: Statement of Task
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2008. Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12070.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2008. Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12070.
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Page 71
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2008. Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12070.
×
Page 72
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2008. Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12070.
×
Page 73
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2008. Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12070.
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Page 74

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B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff WESLEY T. HUNTRESS, JR., Co-chair, is a staff member and former director at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where fundamental laboratory research is conducted in geochemistry, geobiology, and physical chemistry at high pressures related to Earth and planetary science. Dr. Huntress began his career in 1968 at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as an astrochemist spe- cializing in chemical processes in the interstellar medium, comets, and planetary atmospheres. He was director of solar system exploration at NASA Headquarters (1990-1992), and then as associate administrator for space science (1993-1998) he was responsible for NASA’s robotic science missions to explore the solar system and to observe the universe. At the Carnegie Institution, he continues today as a spokesman and strategist for the scientific exploration of space. Dr. Huntress received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry (1964) and an honorary doctorate of science (2005) from Brown University and his Ph.D. in chemical physics (1968) from Stanford University. His list of awards includes NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal, the U.S. Presidential Distinguished Executive Award, the Robert H. Goddard Award from NASA, the Carl Sagan Award from the American Astronautical Society, and a National Endowment for the Arts/Federal Design Achievement award for the Mars Pathfinder mission. Asteroid 7225 has also been named after him. Dr. Huntress is former president of the Planetary Society, an Academician in the International Academy of Astronautics, a lifetime associate of the National Academies, an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society, and a distinguished visiting scientist at JPL. His National Research Council (NRC) experience includes membership on the Committee on Setting Priorities for NSF-Sponsored Large Research Facil- ity Projects (2003-2004) and the Solar System Exploration Survey Steering Group (2000-2002). NORINE E. NOONAN, Co-chair, is dean of the School of Science and Mathematics of the College of Charleston. Previously she was assistant administrator for research and development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In that position, Dr. Noonan served as the principal science adviser to the administrator with line responsibilities for national research programs in pollution sources, fate, and health and welfare effects; pollution prevention and control, waste management, and utilization technologies; and environmental sciences and moni- toring systems. Before her service at EPA, Dr. Noonan was vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at the Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Noonan also served as chief of the Science and Space Programs Branch of the Energy and Science Division for the Office of Management and Budget (1987-1992). She has served as a budget and program analyst for the Science and Space Programs Branch (1983-1987) and as an American Chemical Society Congressional Science Fellow for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor- 70

APPENDIX B 71 tation (1982-1983). Dr. Noonan has also served as an expert consultant for the congressional Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology (1981-1982). She is a member and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society for Cell Biology. Dr. Noonan’s NRC experience includes service on the Board on Radioactive Waste Management (2002-2005) and on the Steering Committee for a Workshop on an Earth Science Enterprise Federation (vice chair, 1996-1997). SUSHIL K. ATREYA is professor of atmospheric and space science at the University of Michigan. His current research interests include composition, chemistry, structure, and the origin and evolution of planetary and satel- lite atmospheres, particularly the giant planets, Titan, Mars, and Venus, and the formation of solar systems. Dr. Atreya is at present a member of the science teams of Cassini-Huygens, Mars Science Laboratory, Juno-Jupiter Polar Orbiter, Venus Express, and the Mars Express missions. He has received the NASA Award for exceptional scientific contributions to the Voyager missions to the giant planets (1981), the NASA Group Achievement Award for outstanding scientific contributions with the Voyager Ultraviolet Spectrometer (1981, 1986, 1990), and NASA group achievement awards for outstanding scientific contributions with the Galileo Probe mass spectrometer and outstanding contributions to the Galileo Project at Jupiter (1996). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Academician of the International Academy of Aeronautics, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is the author of Atmospheres and Ionospheres of the Outer Planets and Their Satellites and editor of Origin and Evolution of Planetary and Satellite Atmospheres and three other books. He is at present co-chair of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG). Dr. Atreya has served three 1-year terms on the NRC Panel on Space Sciences of the Policy and Global Affairs Division’s Associateship Program (1984-1985, 1986-1987, 1989-1990). CARRINE BLANK is a research assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Mon- tana, Missoula. Her research focuses on microbial evolution and how microorganisms have co-evolved with the early Earth. She studies microbial populations in boiling silica-depositing springs, with a focus on determining metabolic capabilities of the uncultured earliest branches in the tree of life and their ecological distributions. Her work on phylogenomic dating has led to insights into the early evolution of cyanobacteria and archaea, and aims to identify new age constraints in the tree of life and to reconstruct ancient biogeochemical cycles on Earth. WILLIAM V. BOYNTON is a professor in the Department of Planetary Sciences at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. Dr. Boynton’s current research interests concentrate on the geochemical evolution of Mars, with special emphasis on water and carbon dioxide. His past research interests include theoreti- cal studies on the nebular condensation of elements and mineralogic and trace-element studies of meteorites, with particular emphasis on primitive meteorites and their Ca- and Al-rich inclusions. He was the team leader for the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer on the Mars Observer Mission, co-investigator on the Mars Polar Lander responsible for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) on the Mars Polar Lander, and co-investigator on the NEAR- Shoemaker mission. Currently he is principal investigator for the Gamma-ray Spectrometer on the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission, co-investigator on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission responsible for the TEGA instrument, co- investigator on the MESSENGER mission as the geochemistry lead, and co-investigator on the Cassini mission. He has received several NASA group achievement awards for his work on these missions, and he has received the NASA public service medal for his discovery of subsurface ice in the polar regions of Mars. Dr. Boynton served on the NRC Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (1998-2001). WILLIAM D. COCHRAN is a senior research scientist at the McDonald Observatory of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas. His research interests include extrasolar planetary systems, high-precision measurements of stellar radial velocity variations, variable stars, planetary atmospheres, comets, and asteroids. A leader in the study of planetary systems, Dr. Cochran is a co-investigator on NASA’s Kepler mission and has served as chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Dr. Cochran served

72 GRADING NASA’S SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION PROGRAM on the NRC Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (2003-2006) and the Committee on Priorities for Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and Propulsion: A Vision for Beyond 2015 (2004-2006). LARRY W. ESPOSITO is a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the principal investigator of the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) experiment on the Cassini space mission to Saturn. He was chair of the Voyager Rings Working Group and, as a member of the Pioneer Saturn Imaging Team, he discovered Saturn’s F ring. His research focuses on the nature and history of planetary rings. Dr. Esposito has been a participant in numerous U.S., Russian, and European space missions and used the Hubble Space Telescope for its first observations of Venus. He was awarded the Harold C. Urey Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement from NASA, and the Richtmyer Lecture Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society. Dr. Esposito has extensive NRC experience, including service on the Task Group on the Forward Contamination of Europa (chair, 1999-2000) and the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (chair, 1989-1992). G. SCOTT HUBBARD has been recognized as an innovator and leader in science, technology, and management for more than 30 years—including 20 years with NASA. He currently is a consulting professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University and also holds the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute. From 2002 to 2006, Dr. Hubbard was the director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. In 2003 he served full time as the sole NASA representative on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, directing impact testing that demonstrated the definitive physical cause of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. In 2000, Dr. Hubbard served as NASA’s first Mars program director and successfully restructured the entire Mars program in the wake of mission failures. He is the founder of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute. He conceived the Mars Pathfinder mission with its airbag landing and was the manager for NASA’s highly successful Lunar Prospec- tor Mission. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hubbard led a small start-up high-technology company in the San Francisco Bay area and was a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has received many honors, including NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal. He was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics, is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and was awarded the Von Karman medal by the AIAA. He has authored more than 50 scientific papers on research and technology. Dr. Hubbard received his undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University and his graduate education in solid-state and semiconductor physics at the University of California, Berkeley. WILLIAM M. JACKSON is a Distinguished Research Professor for the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis (UCD). He was chair of the department (2000-2005). Before moving to UCD, Dr. Jackson taught at Howard University and worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He has been a Guggenheim fellow, received a Humboldt Senior Research Award, received the AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society as well as a fellow of the AAAS. Dr. Jackson was a founder of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. His principal areas of expertise are in astrochemistry, chemical kinetics, photochemistry, and laser chemistry. In the field of astrochemis- try, he led the team that first used the International Ultraviolet Explorer telescope to observe comets. His laboratory was the first to use tunable dye lasers to detect free radicals from the photodissociation of stable molecules. He was also the first to use them for the measurement of the lifetimes of individual rotational levels that demonstrated that perturbations between electronic states could change the lifetimes of these levels. He has continued to measure the photochemical properties of cometary molecules in the laboratory and has demonstrated plausible mechanisms for the formation of C2, C3, and CS radicals in comets. He has published more than 160 scientific papers and has one patent. Dr. Jackson served on the NRC Panel on Chemical Sciences (1983-1985). MARGARET G. KIVELSON is Distinguished Professor of Space Physics in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests are in the areas of solar-terrestrial physics and planetary science. She is known for work on the particles and magnetic fields of Earth and Jupiter and for investigations of properties of Jupiter’s Galilean

APPENDIX B 73 moons. She was the principal investigator for the magnetometer on the Galileo Orbiter that acquired data in Jupiter’s magnetosphere for 8 years. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Physical Society, the International Academy of Astronautics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society. She was awarded the Alfven Medal of the European Geophysical Union and the Fleming Medal of the AGU in 2005. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and has served on several NRC committees and boards, including the Space Studies Board (2002-2005) and the Workshop Committee on Issues and Opportunities Regarding the Future of the U.S. Space Program (2003-2004). RALPH L. McNUTT is a senior space physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. McNutt is currently the project scientist and a co-investigator on the MESSENGER program and the Voyager Plasma Spectrometer and Low Energy Charged Particle experiments. He is the Applied Physics Laboratory study scientist for the Solar Probe; a member of the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer Team, Cassini Orbiter spacecraft; and a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission to Pluto. He has worked on the physics of the magnetospheres of the outer planets, the outer heliosphere (including solar wind dynamics and properties of the very-low-frequency radiation), Pluto’s atmosphere, pulsars, high-current electron beams, the physics of active experiments in the meso- sphere/thermosphere (artificial aurora), and the solar neutrino problem. Dr. McNutt previously served as a member of the NRC Committee for the Study of the Next Decadal Mars Architecture (2006) and the Committee on Priorities for Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and Propulsion: A Vision for Beyond 2015 (2004-2006). WILLIAM B. MOORE is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences of the University of California, Los Angeles. His research explores geodynamics with applications to the terrestrial planets and icy satellites of the solar system. He is a member of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. Dr. Moore served as a member of the NRC Solar System Exploration Survey Panel on Large Satellites (2001-2002). JANET L. SIEFERT is a faculty fellow in the Department of Statistics at Rice University. She also serves as a faculty mentor at the W.M. Keck Center for Computational and Structural Biology. Her research interests are phylogeny reconstruction, prokaryotic biochemical systems and ecosystem evolution, origins of life, RNAs, and astrobiology. Dr. Siefert is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2004 NASA Discretionary Award, the Ruth Satter Memorial Citation of Merit, the Award of the Association for Women in Science, and the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds short-term fellowship for study at the Gesellschaft fur Biotechnologische Forschung. Dr. Siefert’s NRC experience includes membership on the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life (2003-2006). SPENCER R. TITLEY is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona. He previously worked on NASA’s Lunar Orbiter program and was also a member of the Apollo Field Geology Investigation Team with the U.S. Geological Survey, mapping the geology of potential lunar landing sites for various Apollo missions including Apollo 16 and 17. His current research involves the study of the origin of mineral deposits and the distribution and location of mineral and mineral fuel resources. His research has also included the study of chemical baselines of trace elements in rocks and ores for environmental purposes. Dr. Titley is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Staff DWAYNE A. DAY, study director, has a Ph.D. in political science from the George Washington University and has previously served as an investigator for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He was on the staff of the Congressional Budget Office and also worked for the Space Policy Institute at the George Washington University. He has held Guggenheim and Verville fellowships and is an associate editor of the German spaceflight magazine Raumfahrt Concret, in addition to writing for such publications as Novosti Kosmonavtiki (Russia), Spaceflight, and Space Chronicle (United Kingdom). He has served as study director for several NRC reports, including Space

74 GRADING NASA’S SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION PROGRAM Radiation Hazards and the Vision for Space Exploration (2006), and for the current study New Opportunities in Solar System Exploration (2007). VICTORIA SWISHER is a research associate. She has supported Space Studies Board studies and workshops on the Beyond Einstein report, NASA workforce, Mars research, research enabled by the lunar environment, ITAR, and other topics. Before joining the Space Studies Board, she did research in x-ray astronomy and laboratory astrophysics, which included studying the x-rays of plasma and culminated in her senior thesis, “Modeling UV and X-ray Spectra from the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment.” A graduate of Swarthmore College, she majored in astronomy and minored in English literature. CATHERINE A. GRUBER is an assistant editor with the Space Studies Board. She joined SSB as a senior pro- gram assistant in 1995. Ms. Gruber first came to the NRC in 1988 as a senior secretary for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and has also worked as an outreach assistant for the National Academy of Sci- ences–Smithsonian Institution’s National Science Resources Center. She was a research assistant (chemist) in the National Institute of Mental Health’s Laboratory of Cell Biology for 2 years. She has a B.A. in natural science from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. CELESTE NAYLOR joined the Space Studies Board in June 2002 as a senior project assistant. She has worked with the Committee on Assessment of Options to Extend the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope and also with the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Task Group on Research on the International Space Sta- tion. Ms. Naylor is a member of the Society of Government Meeting Professionals and has more than 10 years of experience in event management. STEPHANIE BEDNAREK, a Space Studies Board 2006 and 2007 summer space policy intern, graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in aerospace engineering with a minor in astronomy. Her previous internships include placements at the Aerospace Industries Association and Orbital Sciences Corporation. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in science and technology policy with a concentration in space policy at George Washington University. ABIGAIL FRAEMAN joined the SSB as a 2007 summer space policy intern. Ms. Fraeman is enrolled at Yale University where she hopes to obtain a B.S. degree in either physics or geology and geophysics. She previously worked under the supervision of planetary scientist Jim Bell at Cornell University generating and classifying soil spectra with data obtained by the Mars Exploration Rovers. She was a finalist in the 2005 Intel Science Talent Search for a space science research project conducted at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., and in 2004 she was one of 16 international students selected by the Planetary Society for a 10-day assignment inside Mars Exploration Rover mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. After completing her undergraduate education, Ms. Fraeman hopes to attend graduate school to study planetary science. EMILY K. McNEIL, Space Studies Board 2006 winter space policy intern, graduated from Middlebury College with a B.A. in physics and astronomy. She has presented her undergraduate research at the AAS meeting, the Posters on the Hill session on Capitol Hill, and two KNAC conferences. In February 2007 she began her doctoral work in astrophysics at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Australian National University in Canberra.

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The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed the agency to ask the NRC to assess the performance of each division in the NASA Science directorate at five-year intervals. In this connection, NASA requested the NRC to review the progress the Planetary Exploration Division has made in implementing recommendations from previous, relevant NRC studies. This book provides an assessment of NASA's progress in fulfilling those recommendations including an evaluation how well it is doing and of current trends. The book covers key science questions, flight missions, Mars exploration, research and analysis, and enabling technologies. Recommendations are provided for those areas in particular need of improvement.

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