Tony Misch, right, began a career as a fine artist, but it ran aground on the rocks of Mt. Wilson in 1982, when a temporary observing job turned into a way of life. In 1987 he joined the staff of the University of California’s Lick Observatory as support astronomer on Mt. Hamilton. Since retiring in…read more »

David Pieri is a Staff Research Scientist in the Science Division of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research covers remote sensing of volcanic ash and gas plumes in the context of aviation hazards and in-situ measurements related to the calibration and validation of their remotely sensed properties; applications of robotic vehicles for in-situ observations of…read more »

Janine Benyus is president of the The Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit organization based in Montana. She is the author of six books on biomimicry, including Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In 1998, Benyus co-founded the Biomimicry Guild, the Innovation Consultancy, which helps innovators learn from and emulate natural models in order to design sustainable products,…read more »

George M. Whitesides is a chemist and professor of chemistry at Harvard University. He is best known for his work in the areas of NMR spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecular self-assembly, soft lithography, microfabrication, microfluidics, and nanotechnology. Whitesides began his independent career as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and remained…read more »

Dr. Jonathan Wiens is an evolutionary biologist, and Associate Professor in the Ecology and Evolution Department at Stony Brook University. He is interested in using phylogenetic studies to address diverse topics in evolution, including patterns of species richness, community assembly, life history evolution, and ecological specialization. Wiens was a curator in the Section of Amphibians…read more »

Mahlon ‘Chuck’ Kennicutt II received his PhD in Oceanography from Texas A&M University in 1980. After a short period at the University of Tulsa, Chuck Kennicutt returned to Texas A&M University in 1981 and assisted in creating the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG). At GERG he served in various positions and rose to be…read more »

Alan S. Belward works for the European Commission at the Joint Research Centre, where heads the Land Resource Management Unit. Dr. Belward received the BSc degree in Plant Biology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1981, and MPhil and PhD degrees in remote sensing studies of vegetation, both from Cranfield University’s School of…read more »

Kristin O’Brien is an Associate Professor of Biology University of Alaska Institute of Arctic Biology. She is interested in the unique biochemical and physiological characteristics that have evolved in fishes living in the chronically cold environment of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. One of the most striking characteristics among the Antarctic fishes of the family Channichthyidae, known…read more »

Sukanya Chakarbarti is faculty member in the physics department at Florida Atlantic University. She researches the dynamical evolution of galaxies, with the goal of developing astrophysical probes of fundamental physics. Chakrabarti works on understanding galaxy evolution by performing hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations of galaxies combined with radiative transfer calculations. Dr. Chakrabarti has co-authored over 30…read more »

Judy Cheng works to learn to about galaxy formation by looking at our own Milky Way. She says that “detailed observations of our galaxy can be used to test predictions made by models of disk formation and evolution, and they complement the large surveys that study galaxies at high redshift. For the Milky Way in…read more »