NASA has named Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan professor in the physical sciences at Cornell University, as chief scientist of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
An astrophysicist and planetary scientist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Lunine also currently serves as chair of Cornell’s Department of Astronomy, NASA said Thursday.
Lunine has worked with JPL on multiple occasions, including as co-investigator on the Juno mission and the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa on the Europa Clipper mission, and as guest investigator for the ultraviolet spectrometer on the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby.
In his new role, Lunine will oversee JPL policy and priority formulation, guide JPL-managed NASA missions as well as research and development efforts and facilitate collaboration with various stakeholders.
As part of his JPL posting, Lunine will also serve as planetary science professor at the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at California Institute of Technology, of which he is an alumnus.
Lunine’s appointment goes into effect on Aug. 16.