NASA Names Jonathan Lunine as Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Chief Scientist

NASA has announced the appointment of Jonathan Lunine as chief scientist of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, effective Aug. 16.

Lunine, who has a doctorate in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology, serves as a physical sciences professor and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University.

In his new role, he will guide JPL’s research and development efforts, drive innovation across the laboratory’s missions and programs, and facilitate the development of the laboratory’s scientific policies and priorities, NASA said.

He will also build and strengthen partnerships with the space agency headquarters and centers, Caltech, academia, the science community, government agencies and industry partners.

Lunine previously participated in various JPL missions, including as a guest investigator for the ultraviolet spectrometer on NASA’s Voyager 2 Neptune encounter, as a co-investigator on the agency’s Juno mission to Jupiter and for the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa instrument on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, and as an interdisciplinary scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Coinciding with the appointment at JPL, he was named professor of planetary science with Caltech’s Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.