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Speaker: Cecilia Sanders, California Institute of Technology Topic: You’ll Know It When You See It:  Defining, Describing and Detecting Life in the Universe SDAA’s October speaker is Caltech graduate student Cecilia Sanders, a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.  She will give a presentation titled “You’ll Know It When You See It: […]

Speaker: Dr. David A. Williams, Arizona State University Topic: The Psyche Mission Our September speaker is Dr. David A. Williams, Ph.D., Research Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and the Co-Investigator and Deputy Imager lead for the NASA Psyche Mission. Dr. Williams is the Director of the Ronald Greeley Center

Speaker: Dr. Julie Castillo-Rogez, JPL planetary scientist Topic: NASA Near Earth Object Missions Our August speaker is Dr. Julie Castillo-Rogez, a JPL planetary scientist specializing in water-rich objects from a modeling and experimental perspectives applied to the formulation, design, and planning of planetary missions. She is the principal science investigator at JPL for the NEA Scout mission.

Speaker: Steve Murray – NASA Solar System Ambassador Topic: New Concepts in Astrobiology (Biosignature and Tech Signature Methods) Abstract: Dr. Murray discusses new techniques for finding signatures of exoplanet life An SDAA member and popular speaker, Steve Murray, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, has been a space enthusiast since the Apollo era, and counted several

Speaker: Dr. Sue Smrekar – JPL Rocky Planet Geoscientist Topic: Venus: Earth’s Evil Twin or Just Misunderstood? Abstract: Venus is becoming more attractive to scientists as technology improves for sending spacecraft to survive orbit and even descend to the surface. From orbiters to balloons, we will talk about the great science that can be done,

Speaker: Dr. Michael Ressler – Project Scientist, James Webb Space Telescope Topic: James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope will continue to revolutionize our study of the cosmos. Slated for launch in late 2021, Webb will look deeper than either the Hubble or Spitzer Space Telescopes at infrared wavelengths. This talk will describe

Speakers: Dr. Xiaohui Fan, Dr. Jinyi Yang, Dr. Feige Wang Topic: The Earliest Supermassive Black Holes in the Universe A trio of astronomers from the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory present new results: Regents’ Professor Xiaohui Fan “Discovery of the brightest quasar in the early universe”, Strittmatter Fellow Dr. Jinyi Yang “Pōniuāʻena”, the first known

Speaker: Dr. Daniel Apai – Steward Observatory Topic: Exoplanets / Astrobiology Dr. Daniel Apai is a recent recipient of NASA’s ICAR Astrobiology grant. This is an inaugural effort focusing on the challenging questions in astrobiology. Daniel’s research focuses on exoplanets, with a particular emphasis on habitable planets and planetary systems. Heleads large programs to understand