Dr. Jonathan Lunine, Chief Scientist

Dr. Jonathan Lunine comes to JPL after 13 years as the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and 5 years as chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. A Caltech alumnus, he has performed pioneering research on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, the nature of planetary interiors and atmospheres, and where environments suited for life might exist in the solar system and beyond. He pursues this research through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions. He was an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and is co-investigator on the Juno mission at Jupiter. On the Europa Clipper mission, he is co-investigator for the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) and a member of the gravity science team. He is also on the 3GM gravity experiment on ESA’s JUICE mission to Ganymede. He served on the Science Working Group of the James Webb Space Telescope as an Interdisciplinary Scientist, which he is currently using for characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. Lunine has contributed to many concept studies for solar system and exoplanet characterization missions.

Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has chaired or co-chaired numerous advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA, including the Giant Planet Systems panel for the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023, and "Pathways to Exploration: Rationales and Approaches for a U.S. Program of Human Space Exploration," which he co-chaired in 2014 with Mitch Daniels, then President of Purdue University.

Lunine received a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester in 1980 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1985. He joined JPL in August 2024 as Chief Scientist.