Image taken from Kepler-16b travel poster

Organizers

Steering Committee (SC) Members

Contact: exoexplorers_sc@jpl.nasa.gov

  • Tiffany Kataria - ExoExplorers
    Tiffany Kataria (chair; JPL)

    Tiffany is a research scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She studies the atmospheres of exoplanets through three-dimensional modeling and comparisons to data observed with HST and Spitzer.

  • Jessie Christiansen - ExoExlorers
    Jessie Christiansen (IPAC)

    Jessie is a research scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute. She collects exoplanets for the NASA Exoplanet Archive, and investigates planet demographics using Kepler, K2, and TESS.

  • Knicole Colón
    Knicole Colón (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

    Knicole Colón is a research astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She is the James Webb Space Telescope Deputy Project Scientist for Exoplanet Science, the Pandora SmallSat Project Scientist, and the Director of the TESS Science Support Center. Knicole has previously worked on the Hubble Space Telescope project, the Kepler and K2 missions, and the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) transit survey.

  • none
    Malena Rice (Yale University)

    Malena is an Assistant Professor in the Yale Department of Astronomy. Her research focuses on the dynamical characterization of exoplanet systems, with the goal of delineating the key pathways along which exoplanets evolve.


Organizing Committee (OC) Members

Contact: exoexplorers_oc@jpl.nasa.gov

  • Jennifer Burt - ExoExplorers
    Jennifer Burt (chair; JPL)

    Jennifer is a research scientist and exoplanet astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she focuses on measuring the masses of small exoplanets using precision radial velocity spectrographs on a variety of ground based telescopes.

  • Vanessa Bailey - ExoExplorers
    Vanessa Bailey (JPL)

    Vanessa is a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She enjoys working at the interface between engineering and science as Instrument Technologist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument (Roman Coronagraph).

  • Raissa Estrela
    Raissa Estrela (JPL)

    Raissa Estrela is an exoplanet astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research focuses on the detection and characterization of exoplanets atmospheres and on the analysis of factors that play a key role in the evolution of the atmospheres of small exoplanets.

  • Marie Ygouf - ExoExplorers
    Marie Ygouf (JPL)

    Marie is a Technologist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research focuses on improving the performance of instruments for direct imaging of circumstellar environments, taking profit of data analysis and of the detailed characterization of the instrumental limitations and calibration capabilities.

  • Rob Zellem - ExoExplorers
    Rob Zellem (JPL)

    Rob is an exoplanet astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on ground- and space-based observations of exoplanet atmospheres. He is a member of the Project Science team for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument and is the project lead for the Exoplanet Watch citizen science program whereby amateur astronomers monitor transiting exoplanets.


Former Members

  • Joshua Pepper - ExoExplorers
    Joshua Pepper (2021 Cohort SC member; Lehigh University)

    Joshua is a professor in the physics department at Lehigh University. His research involves the detection of transiting exoplanets with small ground-based telescopes (KELT) and small space-based telescopes (TESS).

  • Natasha Batalha - ExoExplorers
    Natasha Batalha (2021-2023 Cohorts SC member; NASA Ames)

    Natasha is a research scientist at NASA Ames. Her research focuses on modeling the climate and chemistry of planetary atmospheres, with the goal of determining atmospheric properties from remote spectroscopic observations.