NExSS Organizational Structure
The NExSS project is overseen by representatives from NASA headquarters, four co-leads, and a steering committee comprised of the PIs of selected teams. See FAQs for detail information about membership.
PIs and Current Teams

Earths in Other Solar Systems (EOS): Toward Forming and Discovering Planets with Biocritical Ingredients
Daniel Apai (PI)
Colette Salyk
Jeanne Davenport
Dante Minniti
David O'Brien
DeWayne Halfen
Fred Ciesla
Gijs Mulders
Ilaria Pascucci
Jinyoung Serena Kim
Joan Najita
Kate Su
Joshua Eisner
Krishna Muralidharan
Laird Close
Lori Allen
Lucy Ziurys
Matrayee Bose
Min Fang
Neville Woolf
Peter Williams
Phil Hinz
Renu Malhotra
Sandra Pizzarello
Tom Zega
Travis Barman
Benjamin Rackham
Andres Jordan
Edwin Bergin
Sebastian Krijt
Kevin Wagner

The Desiccation of Habitable Worlds
Rory Barnes (PI)
Rodolfo Garcia
Peter Driscoll

Rocky Planet Habitability: Insights from Solar System Climate Dynamics through Time
Michael Way (PI)
Shawn Domagal-Goldman
Caleb Scharf
Andrew Ackerman
Igor Aleinov
John Armstrong
Rory Barnes
Mark Bullock
Mark Chandler
Thomas Clune
David Grinspoon
Scott Guzewich
Maxwell Kelley
Nancy Kiang
Roxana Lupu
Mark Marley
Alexander Pavlov
Aki Roberge
Tyler Robinson
Gavin Schmidt
Linda Sohl
Christopher Stark
Kostas Tsigaridis
Avi Mandell
Michael McElwain
Rebecca Oppenheimer
Sean Solomon
Melissa Trainer
Ravi Kopparapu
Russell Dietrick
Christopher Colose

Multiwavelength Characterization of Planet Formation Environment
Catherine Espaillat (PI)
Alvaro Ribas
Enrique Macias

Multiplicity Completeness in K2 Planet Catalogs
Brad Hansen (PI)
Jon Zink

Rescuing Kepler’s Background and Crowded Targets
Christina Hedges (PI)
Jessie Dotson
Geert Barentsen
Ann Marie Cody

Structure, Dynamics, and Evolution of Planet-Forming Disks: Modeling the Inner Walls of Transitional Disks
Hannah Jang-Condell (PI)
David Kasper
Dylan Kloster

Searching for Flares and Planets in Young Star Systems With K2
Joe Llama (PI)
Lisa Prato
Lauren Biddle

The Virtual Planetary Laboratory
Victoria Meadows (PI)
David Catling
Dorian Abbot
Eric Agol
Giada Arney
Rory Barnes
Ed Bolton
Russell Deitrick
Shawn Domagal-Goldman
Peter Gao
Jacob Haqq-Misra
Sonny Harman
Erika Harnett
Ben Johnson
Nancy Kiang
Josh Krissansen-Totton
Andrew Lincowski
Rodrigo Luger
Jacob Lustig-Yaeger
Niki Parenteau
Ray Pierrehumbert
Tom Quinn
Sarah Rugheimer
Eddie Schwieterman
Lucianne Walkowicz
Robin Wordsworth
Benjamin Charnay

Assessing Atmospheric Seasonality as an Exoplanet Biosignature
Stephanie Olson (PI)
Eddie Schwieterman
Andy Ridgwell
Chris Reinhard
Vikki Meadows
Tim Lyons
Stephen Kane

The Planetary Systems in the Solar Neighborhood
Ilaria Pascucci (PI)
Gijs Mulders
Katia Cunha
Galen Bergsten

Extending Spitzer to the Ground: A Novel Technique for Probing Exoplanetary Atmospheres
Jason Wright (PI)
Dan Stevens
Noah Tuchow
Alan Reyes
Arvind Gupta
Macy Huston
Nick Tusay
Cayla Dedrick

Plasma Environments of Unmagnetized Planets
David Brain (PI)
Michael Chaffin

The Roles and Origins of Small-Scale Substructures in Protoplanetary Disks.
Sean Andrews (PI)
Til Birnstiel
Cornelis Dullemond
Andrea Isella
Laura Perez
Zhaohuan Zhu
Jane Huang
Karin Oberg
David Wilner

Discovering and Characterizing Exoplanets with High-Contrast Spectroscopy.
Timothy Brandt (PI)

Discovery and Atmospheric Reconnaissance of the Most Spectroscopically Accessible Temperate Transiting Terrestrial Exoplanets.
David Charbonneau (PI)
Jennifer Winters
Robin Wordsworth
Dimitar Sasselov
Jonathan Irwin
Jason Dittmann
Raphaelle Haywood
Hannah Diamond-Lowe

Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Planet Occurrence Rates: Extending the Kepler Legacy Across a Wide Stellar Parameter Space with K2.
Jessie Christiansen (PI)
Courtney Dressing

Understanding the Role of Stellar Multiplicity in the Formation and Evolution of Exoplanetary Systems
David Ciardi (PI)
Rachel Matson

CLEVER Planets (Cycles of Life Essential Volatile Elements in Rocky Planets).
Rajdeep Dasgupta (PI)
Andrea Isella
Adrian Lenardic
Cin-Ty A. Lee
Laurence Yeung
Pedram Hassanzadeh
Raphaelle Haywood
Hilke Schlichting
Tom McCollom
Francis McCubbin
Aaron Burton
Christopher Johns-Krull
Bernard Marty
Alexander Smirnov

Assessing the Hallmarks of Migration and In Situ Formation in Multi-Exoplanet Systems.
Rebekah Dawson (PI)
Sarah Morrison
Mariah MacDonald

Measuring Stellar Rotation with K2.
James Davenport (PI)
Ruth Angus
Marcel Agueros
Kevin Covey
David Kipping

Characterizing Atmospheric Technosignatures
Adam Frank (PI)
Sofia Sheikh

Exoplanetary Space Weather, Climate and Habitability: Consequences of Atmospheric Loss.
Chuanfei Dong (PI)
Manasvi Lingam
Meng Jin
Yuni Lee
Stephen Bougher
Yingjuan Ma
Janet Luhmann
Joshua Winn
Fei Dai
Shannon Curry

Dynamical Evolution of Circumbinary Disks and Embedded Planets.
Nader Haghighipour (PI)
Wilhelm Kley
Frederic Masset

Completing the Puzzle of Exoplanet Host Stars: Stellar Characterization in Support of TESS.
Stephen Kane (PI)
Joshua Pepper
Greg Henry

Long-duration, precision stellar photometry from solar observatories in space.
Ralf Kotulla (PI)

Broadband, High-Resolution Frequency Comb Spectroscopy and Multi-Spectral Analysis of Water Vapor and Methane Absorption Up To 1300K For Improved Modeling of Exoplanet Atmospheres.
Greg Rieker (PI)
Brian Drouin
Ryan Cole

Back and Forth, Big and Small: Forward and Inverse Models of Super-Earth and Mini-Neptune Exoplanets.
Tyler Robinson (PI)

Giant impacts: The formation and diversity of super-Earths.
Hilke Schlichting (PI)

Breaking the Barrier Between Ice and Rock – New Mass-Radius Relations for Gas Giant, Icy Giant, Mini-Neptune, and Water World Exoplanets.
Sang-Heon (Dan) Shim (PI)

The effect of salt- and land-albedo feedback on the climate and habitability of M-dwarf planets.
Aomawa Shields (PI)
Andrew Rushby

A Value-Added, Science-Enabling Catalog of Precise Stellar Properties for the TESS Mission.
Keivan Stassun (PI)
Ryan Oelkers
Joshua Pepper

Completing Kepler’s Census: Using Deep Neural Networks to Measure the Frequency of Earth Analogs.
Andrew Vanderburg (PI)

Developing Insights into Debris Disk Composition from Dust Scattering.
Alycia Weinberger (PI)

Upside-Down Biospheres and the Remote Detectability of Life on Reducing Planets.
Chris Reinhard (PI)
Shawn Domagal-Goldman
Andy Ridgwell
Kazumi Ozaki
Giada Arney

Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration
Avi Mandell (PI)
William Danchi
Alex Glocer
Sonny Harman
Elisa Quintana
Eric Lopez
Giada Arney
Jeremy Schnittman
Knicole Colon
Marc Kuchner
Michael Way
Nancy Kiang
Prabal Saxena
Ravi Kopparapu
Scott Guzewich
Thomas Fauchez
Vladimir Airapetian
Weijia Kuang
Yuni Lee

A Suite of Tools for Characterizing Imaged Exoplanets Using High Resolution Spectropolarimetry
Theodora Karalidi (PI)
A Uniform Catalog of Planets from TESS Full Frame Images
Elisa Quintana (PI)
ACCESS: Ground-based, High-Quality Optical Transmission Spectra of Exoplanets to Optimize and Complement Exoplanet Atmospheres Observations with JWST
Mercedes López-Morales (PI)
James Kirk
Chima McGruder
Ian Weaver
Nestor Espinoza
Andres Jordan
David Osip
Benjamin Rackham
Daniel Apai
Nikole Lewis
Adaptation of High Precision Atmospheric Trace Gas Retrieval Technique and Updated Spectroscopy to Model Micro-telluric Features enabling EPRV
Keeyoon Sung (PI)

Alien Earths: Which Nearby Planetary Systems are Likely to Host Habitable Planets and Life?
Daniel Apai (PI)
Anders Johansen
Andres Jordan
Andrew Youdin
Benjamin Rackham
Christoph Mordasini
Fred Ciesla
Gijs Mulders
Ilaria Pascucci
Jared Males
Jessica Barnes
Joan Najita
Joshua Eisner
Kaitlin Kratter
Kathryn Volk
Kevin Heng
Kevin Wagner
Laird Close
Lucy Ziurys
Maitrayee Bose
Marit Mol Lous
Min Fang
Pierre Haenecour
Regis Ferriere
Renu Malhotra
Sebastian Krijt
Jinyoung Serena Kim
Stephane Mazevet
Tom Zega
Tommi Koskinen
Adrien Houge
Antonin Affholder
Jay Kudendran-Sumathi
Boris Sauterey
Brendan Chapman
Jeremy Dietrich
Alex Bixel
Chemical Assessment of M-dwarfs and their Rocky Exoplanets to Improve Characterization in the TESS/JWST Era
Natalie Hinkel (PI)
Follow the Volatiles: Tracing Chemical Species Relevant to Habitability from Proto-planetary Disks to Exoplanet Atmospheres
Natalie Batalha (PI)
From Exocomets to Technosignatures: Hidden Occulters in Planetary Systems
Ann Marie Cody (PI)
Hot and Steamy, Cold and Icy, or Temperate and Habitable: Modeling the Early Evolution of Water World Exoplanets
Leslie Rogers (PI)
Metal Enrichment of Giant Planets During their Final Formation Stages
Yasuhiro Hasegawa (PI)
Gennaro D’Angelo
Mark Swain
Moderate Resolution Spectroscopy of Directly Imaged Exoplanets: Abundances, Kinematics, and Algorithms for the Era of JWST
Quinn Konopacky (PI)
Travis Barman
Bruce Macintosh
Marshall Perrin
Kielan Wilcomb
JB Ruffio
Laci Brock
Planetary Systems Biochemistry
Sara Walker (PI)
Polarization Signatures of Habitable Exoplanets
Kimberly Bott (PI)
Tiffany Kataria
Victoria Meadows
Probing the Compositions of Multi-planet Transiting Systems with Photodynamics
Eric Agol (PI)
Space Weather Impacts on Habitable Environments
Neil Murphy (PI)
Jamie Jasinski
Marco Velli
Victor Réville
Leonardo Regoli
Spectroscopy and Lightcurves of Terrestrial Exoplanet Analogs: Earth and Mars from the EPOXI Discovery Mission
Timothy Livengood (PI)
Studying the Habitable Zones of Nearby Main Sequence Stars with Precision Nulling Interferometry
Steve Ertel (PI)
The M-dwarf Opportunity: Characterizing Nearby M-dwarf Habitable Zone Planets
Kevin Stevenson (PI)
Giada Arney
Tom Barclay
Natalie Batalha
David Brain
Howard Chen
Junellie González Quiles
Jacob Haqq-Misra
Sasha Hinkley
Tiffany Kataria
Brian Kilpatrick
Ravi Kopparapu
Nikole Lewis
Mercedes López-Morales
Jacob Lustig-Yaeger
Kathy Mandt
Erin May
Sarah Peacock
Elisa Quintana
Laura Schaefer
Joshua Schlieder
Eddie Schwieterman
Evgenya Shkolnik
Kristin Sotzen
Jeff Valenti
Hannah Wakeford
Eric Wolf
Third Rock: Finding the Terrestrial Planets Missing from RV Surveys
John Brewer (PI)

To Have but Not to Hold: Atmospheric Mass Loss of Super-Earths and Sub-Neptunes
Hilke Schlichting (PI)
Transforming Yields of Direct Imaging Planetary Searches with Young Accelerating Stars
Brendan Bowler (PI)
Former NExSS Teams

Exoplanetary Ecosystems: Exploring Life’s Detectability on Chemically Diverse Exoplanets
Steven Desch (PI)
Mark Marley
Ariel Anbar
Hilairy Hartnett
Patrick Young
Sara Walker
Erik Asphaug
Hinsby Cadillo Quiroz
Natalie Hinkel
Allen McNamara
Susanne Neuer
Jenny Patience
Amisha Poret-Peterson
Dan Shim
Everett Shock
Christy Till
Mini Wadhwa
Misha Zolotov
Stephen Lehner
David Williams
Mike Pagano
Jason Raymond
Jim Eiser
Denton Ebel
Mark Ghiorso
Stephen Kane
Carey Lisse
Eric Mamajek
Sean Raymond
Maggie Turnbull
Paul Dijkstra
Vardan Adibekyan
Jade Bond
Joleen Carlberg
Elisa Delgado Mena
Vikki Meadows
Nuno Santos
Caroline Soubiran
Sergio Sousa

The Planet-Forming Environment Close to Young Stars
Neal Turner (PI)
Kees Dullemond
Mario Flock
Sebastien Fromang
Richard Nelson
Satoshi Okuzumi

Exploring Exoplanetary Exospheres: Extended Atmosphere Detection, Characterization, and Evolution in Exoplanets
Adam Jensen (PI)
Seth Redfield
Michael Endl

Forward and Inverse Modeling of Brown Dwarf Atmospheres
Jonathan Fortney (PI)
Mark Marley
Michael Line
Caroline Morley
Y. Katherina Feng
Didier Saumon
Roxana Lupu

Tidal Dynamics and Orbital Evolution of Terrestrial Class Exoplanets with Time-Varying Internal Melt Fractions
Wade Henning (PI)
Terry Hurford
Avi Mandell
Soko Matsumura