David Grinspoon

David Grinspoon is an astrobiologist, award-winning science communicator, and prize-winning author. He is a Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Previously he served as Senior Scientist for Astrobiology Strategy at NASA where he worked to define the agenda for the future of Astrobiology research and communication. His research focuses on climate evolution on Earth-like planets, potential conditions for life elsewhere in the universe, and the planetary scale impacts of human activities on Earth. He has worked on several interplanetary spacecraft missions and is currently on the science team for NASA’s upcoming DAVINCI mission to Venus. In 2013 he was appointed as the inaugural Chair of Astrobiology at the U.S. Library of Congress where he studied the human impact on Earth systems and organized a public symposium on the Longevity of Human Civilization. He has given dozens of public lectures about climate change in the Solar System. His technical papers have been published in Nature, Science, and numerous other journals, and he has given invited keynote talks at conferences around the world. Grinspoon’s popular writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Scientific American, Natural History, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times. His newest book is Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto, co-authored with Alan Stern. His book Earth in Human Hands was named a Best Science Book of 2016 by NPR’s Science Friday and was a finalist for the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. His previous book Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life won the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Nonfiction. He lectures widely, and appears frequently as a science commentator on television, radio and podcasts, including as a frequent guest and host of StarTalk Radio. Also a musician, he currently plays with Groovadelics. Grinspoon was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal for Public Communication of Planetary Science by the American Astronomical Society. In 2022 he was elected as a lifetime Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.  Asteroid 22410 Grinspoon, a main-belt asteroid, is named after him.