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.

 

NASA HQ representatives

Mary Voytek
Shawn Domagal-Goldman
Doug Hudgins
Richard Eckman
Jared Lisner

Co-leads

Dawn Gelino
Victoria Meadows
Daniel Apai
Jessica Noviello

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 Mercedes Lopez-Morales 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
Exoplanets Unveiled: Formation, Evolution, and Prospects for Life Paul Kalas (PI) James Graham Eugene Chiang Bruce Macintosh Vanessa Bailey Steve Beckwith Megan Andsell Jeffrey Chilcote Ian Czekala Becky Jensen-Clem Eric Nielsen William Roberson
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 Jacob Luhn Noah Tuchow Sofia Sheikh Alan Reyes Avinda Gupta
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 Mercedes Lopez-Morales 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)
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)
Roles of Stellar Flares and Storms in Exoplanetary Atmospheric Losses and Evolution Chuanfei Dong (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
The Role of Cryovolcanism in Creating Habitable Niches on Exoplanets Beyond the Snow Line Lynnae Quick (PI) Amy Barr Aki Roberge
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 Living, Breathing Planet William Moore (PI) Nicholas Heavens Kunio Sayanagi Jared Bell Guillame P. Gronoff Jeremy Drake Ofer Cohen Meredith K. Elrod Mehdi Benna Phil Arras Daniel Weimer Alex Glocer Shannon Curry Chris Parkinson Cecilia Garaffo
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
Mission to Young Earth 2.0 Vladimir Airapetian (PI) George Khazanov William Danchi Antti Pulkkinen Maria Kuznetsova Arcadi Usmanov Chuanfei Dong Erik Herbrard Gary Zank Kevin France Alex Glocer Guillame P. Gronoff
Tidal Dynamics and Orbital Evolution of Terrestrial Class Exoplanets with Time-Varying Internal Melt Fractions Wade Henning (PI) Terry Hurford Avi Mandell Soko Matsumura