PSI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Public Information Officer
Dr. Nordt has an extensive background in structures, opto-mechanical systems and instrument development which includes engineering experience with design and analysis and hands-on hardware experience through integration and test. She also has diverse program management experience through the program lifecycle from capture through end item product delivery. Dr. Nordt holds Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and a
Job Titles:
- Communication Specialist / Producer
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Social Media Manager and Communication Specialist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Dan Berman is interested in planetary geologic mapping, fluvial and glacial geomorphology, photogeologic interpretation and image processing, chronologic interpretations via crater counting, and crater evolution based on morphologies and degradational states. His current research projects include: Refining Martian Ages and Understanding Geological Processes from Cratering Statistics; Martian Highland Volcanoes: Studies of Volcanic and Degradation Histories from High-Resolution Images and Impact Crater Populations; Testing the Hypothesis of Young Martian Volcanism; Investigations of Ice-Driven Degradation Styles on Mars.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Network and Linux System Administrator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Research Scientist
- Research Scientist / Professional History
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and much of my childhood was spent in the open spaces of California, including backpacking throughout the Sierra Nevada mountains. So when I enrolled at UC Santa Cruz and I had to select a major, geology seemed like an obvious choice, and I imagined that I could get paid to continue exploring the outdoors. After mixing up course numbers I enrolled in a planetary science class by accident but was immediately enthralled by the subject matter and switched my undergraduate program to planetary geology. After completing my B.S. degree from UC Santa Cruz I worked as a research associate at NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute examining martian alluvial fans. I continued this work during my Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. During my final two years in grad school I was a predoctoral fellow at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, the scientific research branch of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. I was hired as an associate research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in 2020, and was soon promoted to a research scientist. I maintain a research appointment at the Smithsonian Institution.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist / Professional History
Dr. Hendrix has 25+ years of experience in planetary science research. Hendrix received a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. As a graduate student and post-doctoral research at LASP/Univ. Colorado, Hendrix gained valuable experience in UV spectroscopy and instrumentation and began a career of investigating solar system surfaces (largely airless bodies) in the UV. After LASP, she spent 12 years at JPL, progressing from a science planner on Cassini to Deputy Project Scientist, before moving to PSI in 2012. She was a co-investigator on the Cassini UVIS instrument, is currently a co-investigator on the LRO LAMP instrument, and is a member of the Europa Clipper UVS science team. She has led observing and research teams and published results in numerous NASA R&A and Hubble Space Telescope programs. Hendrix is the Director/PI of the NASA Toolbox for Exploration (TREX) team. She co-authored Beyond Earth: Our Path to a new Home in the Planets, published by Penguin/Random house in Nov 2016. Besides research, she enjoys teaching and sharing her love of planetary science with students and the public.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist / Professional History
Dr. Sickafoose's work in planetary science started through the Research Experience for Undergraduates at Lowell Observatory/Northern Arionza University. She received an MSc and PhD in Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was briefly a postdoc in the Center for Integrated Plasma Studies before moving to the Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The transition in organizations also marked a transition in research topics, moving from experimental dusty plasmas to observations of bodies in the distant Solar System as part of the Deep Ecliptic Survey team. For the next five years, her research focussed on characterizations of the Kuiper Belt, stellar occultations by TNOs, and building high-speed imaging instruments to observe stellar occultations. In 2008, she moved to Cape Town, South Africa, to become a staff astronomer on the 10-m Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In 2014, she became the Head of Instrumentation at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and managed that team until January 2020. In order to observe from within the elusive shadows of stellar occultations, Dr. Sickafoose has used a variety of telescopes around the world (including in Australia, Chile, Namibia, and New Zealand). She was the PI for MORIS on the IRTF and the SHOC systems in Sutherland, and she has managed multiple other imaging and spectrograph instrumentation projects at the SAAO. For awhile, she was known as Amanda Gulbis.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
- Expert
- Senior Scientist / Professional History
Dr. Barr Mlinar holds a B.S in Planetary Science from Caltech (2000), M.S. (2002) and Ph.D. (2004) in Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder. At Washington University in St. Louis (2005-2006) and the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder (2006-2011), she studied the origin of the activity on Enceladus, the accretion of Callisto in a gas-starved disk, and the effect of the Late Heavy Bombardment on the outer planet satellites. In 2011 she joined the faculty at Brown University where she continued these lines of research; she continues to work on these subjects as a Senior Research Scientist at PSI. Her work demonstrates that large icy satellites can accrete cold, consistent with the interior states of Callisto and Titan; and highlights the importance of tides in driving icy satellite differentiation. She serves on the National Academies Standing Committee on Astrobiology & Planetary Science (CAPS) and the committee on Planetary Protection for Icy Bodies. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the Summer Science Program, Inc. since 2004.
Dr. Amy Barr Mlinar is an expert in the formation and evolution of solid planetary bodies.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director of the Emerging Technologies Institute at the National Defense Industrial Association
Dr. Arun A. Seraphin is the Deputy Director of the Emerging Technologies Institute at the National Defense Industrial Association, a nonpartisan institute focused on technologies that are critical to the future of national defense. He provides research and analyses to inform the development and integration of emerging technologies and policies to support defense missions.
From 2001 to 2010, and 2014 to 2021, Dr. Seraphin was a Professional Staff Member
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Dr. Bob Gaskell is engaged in the application of procedures for determining high-resolution topography from multiple images by means of stereophotoclinometric (SPC) techniques that he has developed over the past two decades.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist Emeritus
- Senior Scientist Emeritus / Professional History
Since 1986, Dr. Barraclough has been involved in all aspects of the design, fabrication, testing and calibration of spaceflight neutron, gamma-ray, plasma, neutral-particle and LIBS instrumentation. Additionally, he has considerable experience in instrument and project management, mission planning and operations, payload accommodation, integration and S/C-level testing, in-flight sensor operations, ground data systems and the reduction and analysis of returned data. Bruce has been the Project and Operations Manager for the ChemCam investigation (a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy instrument) on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission. He was also the Project Manager for the DAWN/GRaND neutron/gamma-ray investigation. He was the PI for the neutron spectrometers and Co-I for the plasma instruments on a series of DoD spacecraft (DSP and SABRS programs). He was the PI for the GEM and GIM solar wind spectrometers that flew onboard the NASA Genesis spacecraft and Co-I for the SABRS/SAND neutron detector. He has also served in various roles for instruments on several other NASA, ESA, and DoD missions including: CRRES/LOMICS, DSP/APS, Ulysses/SWOOPS, Cassini/CAPS/IBS, Cluster/PEACE, Polar/TIDE, Lunar Prospector/SPECS and ACE/SWEPAM, among others.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Dr. Candice Hansen is interested in the seasonal behavior of volatiles not on Earth, atmospheres in vapor pressure equilibrium with surface ices (Triton, Pluto, KBO's), seasonal polar caps (Mars), erosional processes due to dry ice sublimation (Mars), outer planet satellites' tenuous atmospheres (Europa), and the plumes of Enceladus.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist / Professional History
Dr. Johnson received her PhD in Geophysics in 1994 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD. She was a professor of Geophysics at Scripps until 2007, when she became a professor of Geophysics at the University of British Columbia, a position which she has maintained since joining PSI In 2010.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist
- Expert
- Senior Scientist / Professional History
Dr. Neish received her PhD in Planetary Sciences in 2008 from the University of Arizona. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center between 2009 and 2013, before accepting her first faculty appointment at The Florida Institute of Technology. Since 2015, she has been a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, a position which she has maintained since joining PSI in 2016.
Dr. Neish is an expert in the use of radar observations to study the geology of planetary surfaces, with a particular emphasis on processes related to impact cratering. She was an Associate Science Team member for the RADAR instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and is a Co-Investigator for the Mini-RF hybrid-polarimetric radar on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. She is also a Co-Investigator on NASA's Dragonfly mission, set to visit Saturn's moon Titan in the mid 2030s.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist Emeritus
Dr. Chuck Wood is deeply interested in the Moon, having been involved with its study since the days of Apollo. He also studies Saturn's moon Titan as a member of the Cassini radar team.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Dr. Darby Dyar is a mineralogist and spectroscopist interested in a wide range of problems relating to the evolution of the solar system. She studies the redox state of iron and the abundance of hydrogen in solar system materials using Mossbauer, x-ray absorption, and FTIR spectroscopy.
(left) Dr. Dyar with former student Marie Ozanne with the ChemLIBS instrument in her lab. This instrument was created to simulate spectra obtained by the ChemCam instrument on Mars Science Laboratory. (right) The Mössbauer spedctroscopy laboratory.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist / Professional History
Prior to joining PSI in 2014, Dr. Grinspoon was the Inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg/NASA Chair of Astrobiology at the United States Library of Congress. Grinspoon is Co-I on the Chemistry of Titan Lead Team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Interdisciplinary Scientist Venus Express, Co-I on the RAD instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Dr. David O'Brien works on planet formation and the evolution of the early Solar System, collisional and dynamical evolution of asteroids and small bodies, thermal modeling of geophysical phenomena, and icy satellite geophysics.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Dr. Dave Vaniman is a petrologist/geochemist who studies the mineralogy and mineral chemistry of water-rock interactions. Vaniman was involved with development of the CheMin XRD/XRF concept that began in the early 1990s and evolved into both terrestrial and space applications. His research at PSI is focused on the CheMin X-ray diffraction instrument of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosty. CheMin is a mature and proven robust space instrument that has been in operation at Gale crater since 2011. CheMin determines total mineralogy of a sample, helping constrain phase associations and parageneses of complex rocks. In terrestrial work Vaniman has an early model of a commercial equivalent of the CheMin instrument design, Terra, that he uses to study secondary mineral associations similar to those at Gale crater, particularly the geological settings of Ca- and Mg-sulfate salts that on Mars either transcend or are constrained by the transition from wet to water-starved systems.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
- Senior Scientist Emeritus
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Research Associate and Licensed Software Specialist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Information Technology Director
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Secretary 1997, Chair 1998
Job Titles:
- Senior Education and Communication Specialist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Project Team
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Vice - Chair of the past Board
PSI is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, and an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Director
- C.E.O. and Director of the Planetary Science Institute
Sykes is the C.E.O. and Director of the Planetary Science Institute. He studies asteroids, comets and interplanetary dust, using both ground-based and space-based telescopes, primarily in the thermal infrared. He is the discoverer of cometary dust trails and many extended structures arising from asteroid collisions within the zodiacal cloud.
Mark is the former Chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Deputy Public Information Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Project Team
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Owner of Fouse Consulting Services
Fouse is the owner of Fouse Consulting Services, LLC, (based in Scottsdale, AZ) which helps companies harness advanced technology to enable future products and processes. Previously he was VP of the Advanced Technology Center at Lockheed Martin Space. In this role, he was responsible for leading approximately 500 scientists and engineers performing research and development in space science and a variety of space systems-related technologies and capabilities. Prior to ATC
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Project Team
- Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Project Team
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Craig is an astrophysicist with a long history of conceiving, designing and implementing scientific instruments on both ground and space borne platforms. He holds a PhD in astrophysics from UC Berkeley and has experience with optical systems from the visible through the X-ray as well as gamma-ray detector systems. He has provided technical guidance on the implementation of spaceflight systems for NASA as well as other federal agencies throughout a career in academia and in
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist
- Founder and Senior Scientist of the Planetary Science Institute
Hartmann is a founder and Senior Scientist of the Planetary Science Institute. He and Don Davis (see below) are known for developing, at PSI, the current theory of the origin of the Moon by a large planetesimal impact into the forming Earth. Hartmann's current work involves development of the "PSI isochron system" of counting impact craters to infer ages of various planetary surface units. Hartmann holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy and M.S. in Geology from the University of Arizona.