Steven W. Squyres is a veteran of several of NASA’s planetary exploration missions, including the Voyager mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Magellan mission to Venus, and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission.

Michael Russell’s research into the emergence of life and early evolution will help determine whether earth alone supports life in our universe. Russell was awarded the William Smith Medal from the Geological Society of London.

Oliver Sacks, a physician and author, has been called “the poet laureate of medicine” by The New York Times. His books and essays, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, are used in schools and universities around the world.

Chris McKay is a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions including human exploration.

Gerardus ’t Hooft is a Dutch theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with Martinus Veltman. Born and raised in the Netherlands, ’t Hooft studied theoretical physics and mathematics at Utrecht University, where in 1977 he became Professor of theoretical physics.

As Executive Producer of the PBS science series, NOVA, now in its 38th season, Howard Swartz manages all phases of production, from development through the creative execution of NOVA programs.

Peter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.

César Vega earned his doctorate in food science from the University College Cork in Ireland. His areas of expertise include dairy products, particularly ice cream and yogurt, the physical chemistry of cocoa and chocolate, and the science of cooking.

Meg Schwamb is an astronomer and planetary scientist. She is currently a National Science Foundation (NSF) astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow at Yale University’s Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (YCAA).

Bobak Ferdowsi, also known as “Mohawk Guy,” is a member of the Engineering Operations Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He acted as Flight Director during the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity on Gale Crater in 2012.

Alvar Saenz-Otero is the director of the MIT Space Systems Laboratory at the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His primary role is as lead scientist of the SPHERES program, where he develops research activities for tests aboard the International Space Station and in ground facilities.

Artur B. Chmielewski is the US Rosetta Project Manager. He has managed several flight projects at JPL: the Space Technology 8 mission, Mars Telecommunication Orbiter Rendezvous Experiment, Space Technology 6 mission, Gossamer Program, and Inflatable Antenna Flight Experiment.

Dr. Ellen Stofan is the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. She comes to the Museum with more than 25 years of experience in space administration and planetary science. Dr. Stofan was previously Chief Scientist at NASA.

Mary Roach is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Her latest book, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, came out in 2016.

Mike Meacham holds a M.Eng. in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, concentrating in vehicular design and creating off-road skateboards as part of his education. He spent the first part of his career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Douglas McCuistion has 40 years’ experience in high technology and aerospace sectors. His NASA career culminated in the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover mission after leading the “Golden Decade” of Mars exploration as NASA’s director of the Mars Program.

Dr. Farah Alibay is a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Her primary projects so far have been the InSight Mars Lander, as well as its companion mission: the Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats. Alibay is part of the team that helped build and test the spacecraft.

Michelle Rucker is a native of Anchorage, Alaska and a veteran of NASA. She began her career in the Houston oil industry, designing down-hole sensors while pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

Kirsten is the Research and Payloads Group Lead at the European Space Agency’s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration. In that role, she leads a team of expert scientists and …

Dr. Lauren Edgar is a Research Geologist studying the Earth, Moon, and Mars through a combination of remote sensing and field techniques, to support robotic and human exploration of the …

David Flannery in an astrobiologist at the Queensland University of Technology whose research focuses on the life and environments preserved in Earth’s early geological record. He is also a long-term …

Lindsay Hays is the acting lead scientist for Mars Sample Return Mission, and is NASA’s program scientist for astrobiology, which means that she manages all of the research and coordination …