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Committee and Staff Biographical Information

DAVID CHARBONNEAU, Co-Chair, is a professor of astronomy and a Harvard College Professor at Harvard University. His research focuses on the detection and characterization of exoplanets, with the goal of studying inhabited worlds, the development of novel observational methods in support of these efforts, and stellar astrophysics focusing on nearby solar and low-mass stars as planet hosts. Dr. Charbonneau led the team that made the first detection of transits of an exoplanet across its parent star; the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere; and the first direct detection of light emitted by a planet outside the solar system. Using data from the NASA Kepler mission, Dr. Charbonneau and his student Courtney Dressing determined the galactic frequency of occurrence of planets that were similar to Earth in both size and temperature. He currently leads the MEarth project, which has found several of the terrestrial exoplanets whose atmospheres are amenable to study with upcoming observatories, and he is a co-investigator on the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Dr. Charbonneau has received numerous awards for his research, including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement from NASA, and he was the 2016 Blavatnik National Laureate in Physical Sciences and Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 2001, and his B.Sc. in math, physics, and astronomy from the University of Toronto. In 2017, Dr. Charbonneau was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and he previously served on the Astro2010 Panel on Planetary Systems and Star Formation of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

B. SCOTT GAUDI, Co-Chair, is the Thomas Jefferson Professor for Discovery and Space Exploration and professor of astronomy at the Ohio State University Department of Astronomy. A member of the faculty since 2006, Dr. Gaudi is a leader in the discovery and statistical characterization of extrasolar planets using a variety of methods, including transits and gravitational microlensing. In 2008, he and his collaborators announced the discovery of the first Jupiter/Saturn analogue. Dr. Gaudi is deeply immersed in analytic and numerical techniques for assessing the yield, biases, and discovery potential of current and next-generation surveys to determine the demographics of exoplanets. He is a member of the Formulation Science Working Group for NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and is co-community chair of NASA’s Habitable Exoplanet Observatory study. Dr. Gaudi was the 2009 recipient of the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), won an NSF CAREER Award and Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering in 2012, and received NASA’s Outstanding Public Leadership Medal in 2017. Dr. Gaudi earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from Ohio State University.

FABIENNE A. BASTIEN is an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). At PSU, Dr. Bastien is leading efforts to understand the stellar processes that impact exoplanet detection and characterization and to find ways to mitigate or remove them. Her research interests include stellar variability, stellar astrophysics, exoplanet detection and characterization, the influence of stellar variations on exoplanet habitability, and stellar and planetary system evolution. Dr. Bastien was previously a NASA Hubble postdoctoral fellow at PSU. She earned her Ph.D. in physics from Vanderbilt University.

JACOB BEAN is an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago. His research is focused on the use of ground- and space-based facilities to detect and characterize planets around nearby stars, with particular interest in studying planets around low-mass stars and in probing the atmospheres of the smallest known exoplanets. Dr. Bean previously served as a Sagan Fellow at Harvard University and a Marie Curie International Fellow at the University of Göttingen. He earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas, Austin.

JUSTIN R. CREPP is an associate professor of physics and the director of the Engineering and Design Core Facility at the University of Notre Dame. He designs and builds instruments for the largest telescopes in the world. Professor Crepp’s research involves developing new technologies and observational techniques to detect and study planets orbiting other stars. Prior to working at Notre Dame, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles. Professor Crepp was awarded a NASA Early Career Fellowship in 2013 for his work in studying brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets through direct imaging. Additionally, he won the NSF CAREER Award in 2017 for his work to develop a new type of astronomical spectrograph that uses adaptive optics. He received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Florida.

ELIZA KEMPTON is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland. Her research is focused on the detection and classification of exoplanets, with particular interest in the structure and observable properties of super-Earths and their atmospheres. Dr. Kempton previously served as a Sagan Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has received numerous awards, including the Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the NSF CAREER Award. Dr. Kempton earned her Ph.D. in astronomy at Harvard University.

CHRYSSA KOUVELIOTOU is a professor of astrophysics at George Washington University (GWU) and the director of GWU/Astronomy, Physics, and Statistics Institute of Sciences. Before joining GWU, Dr. Kouveliotou was at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, from which she retired as a senior technologist of high-energy astrophysics. Her research interests include high-energy astrophysical transients, in particular, gamma ray bursts and magnetars, which she discovered in 1998; she has also published papers on X-ray binaries, solar flares, and merging galaxy clusters. Dr. Kouveliotou has initiated large research projects and collaborations in the United States and Europe. She is an affiliate scientist of the NASA/Swift and Fermi missions. She has 454 refereed publications, with a Hirsh-index of 90 and 37,699 citations (ADS; refereed and nonrefereed publications). In 2013, Dr. Kouveliotou chaired the team of the 30-Year Roadmap of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD)/ Astrophysics Division. Dr. Kouveliotou has received multiple awards, including the Descartes Prize, the Rossi and Heineman Prize, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and Space Act Award. She has been decorated by the Greek Government as a Commander of the Order of the Honor, for excellence in science. Dr. Kouveliotou has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the Technical University of Munich, an M.Sc. in astronomy from the University of Sussex, and two honorary degrees, from the Universities of Sussex (UK) and Amsterdam. In addition to the NAS, she is a member of the U.S. Academy of Arts and Sciences and a foreign/corresponding member of the Dutch Royal Academy and the Greek National Academy. Dr. Kouveliotou has been a councilor and a vice president of the AAS and a president of the HEAD (AAS) and DAP (American Physical Society), and she is the president of Division D of the International Astronomical Union. She is currently a member of the executive committee of the Space Studies Board of the National Academies and the Committee on Council Affairs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

BRUCE A. MACINTOSH is a professor of physics at Stanford University. His research focuses on the detection of extrasolar planets (primarily through direct imaging) and on using adaptive optics to shape the wavefronts of light for a variety of applications. Dr. Macintosh is a co-discoverer of four planets orbiting the star HR 8799 and is the principal investigator (PI) of the Gemini Planet Imager, an advance adaptive optics planet-finder for the Gemini South Telescope. He also leads one of the science investigation teams for the Coronagraph Instrument for the WFIRST mission. Dr. Macintosh served on the Exoplanet Task Force in 2006. He received his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Macintosh has served as a member on the National Academies Astro2010 Panel on Optical and Infrared Astronomy from the Ground, the Committee on the Review of Progress Toward the Decadal Survey Vision in New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics. He is currently a member of the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics.

DIMITRI P. MAWET is an associate professor of astronomy at Caltech. He is also a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and his research is focused on the formation and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems, as well as optical and infrared astronomy instrumentation. Dr. Mawet previously served as research scientist at JPL and operations staff astronomer and instrument scientist for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Dr. Mawet invented the Vector Vortex Coronagraph, an instrument to image exoplanets, and has (co-)authored more than 300 scientific publications. He has received multiple awards, including the ESO Exceptional Performance Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, and the JPL Team Award for outstanding contributions to the Exoplanet Coronagraph Technology Group. Dr. Mawet was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Paris-Meudon Observatory (France) in 2002 and at the Institut of Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay (France) in 2003. He received postdoctoral training as a NASA postdoctoral fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in sciences from the University of Liège.

VICTORIA S. MEADOWS is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington in the Department of Astronomy. There, she is also director of the Astrobiology Program and PI for the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory. Dr. Meadows’s research interests include theoretical modeling of terrestrial planetary environments to understand their habitability, the generation and detectability of planetary biosignatures and their false positives, and Solar System planetary observations. The overarching goal of her research is to determine how to recognize whether a distant extrasolar planet can or does support life. Previously, Dr. Meadows was a research scientist at JPL and an associate research scientist at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. She is a recipient of several NASA Group Achievement Awards, has been on the SETI Institute Science Advisory Board, and was a Frontiers of Science Kavli Fellow. She earned her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Sydney. Dr. Meadows served on the National Academies Searching for Life Across Space and Time: A Workshop committee and is currently a member of the Committee on Astrobiology Science Strategy for the Search for Life in the Universe.

RUTH MURRAY-CLAY is an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics and associate department chair in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where she holds the E.K. Gunderson Family Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics. Dr. Murray-Clay’s research explores physical processes that shape the structure and evolution of planetary systems from a broad theoretical perspective. Her work emphasizes developing observational tests of theoretical ideas, with the goal of explaining and organizing the diversity of observed planetary system architectures. She has particular interests in planet formation, gravitational dynamics of extrasolar planets and Solar System bodies, the structure of protoplanetary disks, and mass loss from planetary atmospheres. Previously, Dr. Murray-Clay was a faculty member in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a federal astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and an affiliate of the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. She is a recipient of the Helen B. Warner Prize from the AAS, the Ron Ruby Award for Teaching Excellence in the Physical and Biological Sciences at UCSC, and an NSF CAREER award. Dr. Murray-Clay is also a Kavli Fellow of the NAS. She earned her Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley.

EVGENYA L. SHKOLNIK is an assistant professor of astrophysics at Arizona State University in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. She is an expert on exoplanets and stars, including the Sun, and studies stellar activity and star-planet interactions using ground and space telescopes to answer questions involving stellar evolution, exoplanet magnetic fields, and planet habitability. She is the PI of the NASA Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) mission, and PI of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Habitable Zones and M Dwarf Activity Across Time (HAZMAT) program. Dr. Shkolnik is also a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute Virtual Planetary Laboratory, and is on several science and technology advisory committees for upcoming space missions. Dr. Shkolnik previously was an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, a Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution for Science, and a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. She earned her Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of British Columbia. Asteroid Shkolnik (25156) was named for her.

IGNAS SNELLEN is a professor of observational astrophysics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Dr. Snellen’s research is focused on the development of new techniques and ground-based instrumentation for the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets. He previously served as an astronomy lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Snellen received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Leiden University.

ALYCIA J. WEINBERGER is a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Dr. Weinberger’s research is focused on observational astrophysics, planet formation and circumstellar disks, young stars, exoplanets, and high angular resolution imaging. She is currently a member of the NASA Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer Key Science Team, the SOFIA Science Council, and the Magellan Telescope Science Advisory Committee. Previously, Dr. Weinberger served as a NICMOS Postdoctoral Research Astronomer and Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. She has received multiple awards and fellowships, including the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy from the American Association of University Women and the AAS, as well as the Vainu Bappu Gold Medal from the Astronomical Society of India. Dr. Weinberger earned her Ph.D. in physics from Caltech.

STAFF

NATHAN J. BOLL, Study Director (after May 2018), is an associate program officer with the Space Studies Board (SSB) and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) of the National Academies. He previously served as a research assistant in civil and commercial space at the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress and as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow at the National Academies. Mr. Boll’s background in space policy and science communication includes experience in the Office of International and Interagency Relations at NASA Headquarters, in the Aeronautics and Space Academies at the NASA Glenn Research Center, and as a member of the advisory board of the Montana Space Grant Consortium. Mr. Boll earned his M.S. in space sciences from the University of Michigan, his M.A. in international science and technology policy from GWU, and his B.S. in mathematics from the University of Montana Western.

DAVID B. LANG, Study Director (until May 2018), is a former senior program officer for the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) of the National Academies and joined the National Academies in 2004. Mr. Lang received a B.S. in astronomy and astrophysics from University of Michigan and a master’s degree in engineering and public policy from University of Maryland. At the BPA, he has operated many large committees on scientific and technical policy issues including spectrum management and telecommunications, astronomy and astrophysics, plasma science, particle physics, plasma physics, and materials science. Mr. Lang also works with the board to identify pressing policy issues through discussions with policy makers and the science community.

ARTHUR A. CHARO has been a senior program officer with the SSB since 1995. For most of this time, he has worked with the board’s Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space and the Committee on Solar and Space Physics. Dr. Charo has directed studies resulting in some 37 reports, notably inaugural National Research

Council (NRC) decadal surveys in solar and space physics (2002) and Earth science and applications from space (2007). He also served as the study director for the second NRC decadal survey in solar and space physics (2012) and was recently the study director for the second Earth science decadal, which was released at the end of 2017. Dr. Charo received his Ph.D. in experimental atomic and molecular physics in 1981 from Duke University and was a post-doctoral fellow in chemical physics at Harvard University from 1982 to 1985. He then pursued his interests in national security and arms control as a fellow, from 1985 to 1988, at Harvard University’s Center for Science and International Affairs. From 1988 to 1995 Dr. Charo worked as a senior analyst and study director in the International Security and Space Program in the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. In addition to contributing to SSB reports, he is the author of research papers in the field of molecular spectroscopy, reports on arms control and space policy, and the monograph Continental Air Defense: A Neglected Dimension of Strategic Defense (University Press of America, 1990). Dr. Charo is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in International Security (1985-1987) and a Harvard-Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1987-1988). He was a 1988-1989 AAAS Congressional Science Fellow, sponsored by the American Institute of Physics.

CHRISTOPHER J. JONES is a program officer for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. He joined the National Academies earlier in 2016 as a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow for the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy. Prior to this, Dr. Jones was a start-up founder working in the connected car and energy efficiency domain, a White House Fellow working on material science and water issues, and a Fulbright grantee assessing arsenic removal technologies for contaminated drinking water. Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Rice University and B.S. from Florida State University, all in chemistry.

DIONNA WISE is a program coordinator with the SSB; she previously worked for the National Academies Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education for 5 years. Ms. Wise has a long career in office administration, having worked as a supervisor in a number of capacities and fields. Ms. Wise attended the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and majored in psychology.

LAURA J. CUMMINGS is a Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Ms. Cummings is primarily interested in the interplay between international relations and the burgeoning field of space law. As an undergraduate she researched the possibility of international collaboration facilitating the construction of a global sunshade. Ms. Cummings graduated magna cum laude in general honors from the University of Colorado with B.A.’s in international affairs and astronomy. She will be pursuing a joint M.A. in international relations and J.D. at the University of Denver.

MICHAEL H. MOLONEY was the director of the SSB and the ASEB through April 2018. Since joining the ASEB and SSB Dr. Moloney has overseen the production of more than 60 reports, including five decadal surveys, in astronomy and astrophysics, Earth science and applications from space, planetary science, microgravity sciences, and solar and space physics. He has also been involved in the review of NASA’s space technology roadmaps and oversaw a major report on the rationale for and future direction of the U.S. human spaceflight program, as well as reports on issues such as NASA’s strategic direction, lessons learned from the decadal survey processes, the science promise of CubeSats, the challenge of orbital debris, the future of NASA’s astronaut corps, NASA’s aeronautical flight research program, and national research agendas for autonomy and low-carbon propulsion in civil aviation. Since joining the National Academies in 2001, Dr. Moloney has also served as a study director at the National Materials Advisory Board, the BPA, the Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design, and the Center for Economic, Governance, and International Studies. Dr. Moloney has served as study director or senior staff for a series of reports on subject matters as varied as quantum physics, nanotechnology, cosmology, the operation of the nation’s helium reserve, new anti-counterfeiting technologies for currency, corrosion science, and nuclear fusion. Before joining the SSB and ASEB in 2010, Dr. Moloney was associate director of the BPA and study director for the 2010 decadal survey for astronomy and astrophysics (New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics). In addition to his professional experience at the National Academies, Dr. Moloney has more than 7 years’ experience as a Foreign Service officer for the Irish government—including serving at Ireland’s embassy

in Washington and its mission to the United Nations in New York. A physicist, Dr. Moloney did his Ph.D. work at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He received his undergraduate degree in experimental physics at University College Dublin, where he was awarded the Nevin Medal for Physics. Dr. Moloney is a corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also a recipient of a distinguished service award from the National Academies.

RICHARD ROWBERG was the acting director of the ASEB and the SSB between April 2018 and July 2018. Dr. Rowberg is currently on phased retirement and is a senior advisor for the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (DEPS) of the National Academies. Prior to his retirement, Dr. Rowberg was deputy executive director of DEPS. He has served at NAS since 2002. From 1985 to 2001 he worked for the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. From 1994 to 2001 Dr. Rowberg was a senior specialist in science and technology with the Resources, Science, and Industry Division, and from 1985 to 1994 he was chief of the Science Policy Research Division. From 1975 to 1985 Dr. Rowberg worked for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). From 1975 to 1979 he served as an analyst in and deputy manager of the OTA Energy Program, and from 1979 to 1985 he was manager of the OTA Energy and Materials Program. From 1969 to 1974 Dr. Rowberg was a research engineer and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Texas, Austin. He received a B.A. in physics from UCLA in 1961, and a Ph.D. in plasma physics from UCLA in 1968. In 2010 Dr. Rowberg was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.

COLLEEN HARTMAN is the Director of the ASEB and the SSB. Dr. Hartman has served in various senior positions, including acting associate administrator, deputy director of technology and director of solar system exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and deputy assistant administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr. Hartman was instrumental in developing innovative approaches to powering space probes destined for the farthest reaches of the solar system, including in-space propulsion and nuclear power and propulsion. She also gained administration and congressional approval for an entirely new class of competitively selected missions called “New Frontiers,” to explore the planets, asteroids and comets in the solar system. Dr. Hartman has built and launched balloon and spacecraft payloads, worked on robotic vision, and served as program manager for dozens of space missions, including the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Data from the COBE spacecraft gained two NASA-sponsored scientists the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. Dr. Hartman earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Pomona College in Claremont, California, a master’s in public administration from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate in physics from the Catholic University of America. She started her career as a Presidential Management Intern under Ronald Reagan. Her numerous awards include the Claire Booth Luce Fellowship in Science and Engineering, the NASA Outstanding Performance Award, and multiple Presidential Rank Awards, one of the highest awards bestowed by the President of the United States to senior executives.

JAMES C. LANCASTER is the director of the BPA and acting director of the National Materials and Manufacturing Board. He joined the BPA as a program officer in 2008 and has been responsible staff officer for a number of studies, including the decadal survey on nuclear physics—Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of the Matter, An Assessment of the Science Proposed for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL), Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences, Frontiers in Crystalline Matter: From Discovery to Technology, and Selling the Nation’s Helium Reserve. Prior to joining the BPA, Dr. Lancaster served on faculty at Rice University, where he taught introductory physics to science and engineering students, and as a staff researcher, where he participated in experimental investigations of the interactions of highly excited atoms with electromagnetic pulses and surfaces. In addition to his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Rice University, Dr. Lancaster holds a B.A degree in economics from Rice University and a J.D. degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Prior to entering the field of physics, Dr. Lancaster practiced law for more than 12 years, specializing in the financial structuring and restructuring of businesses.