Jonathan Lunine

Jonathan Lunine
Born	Jonathan Irving Lunine June 26, 1959 (1959-06-26) (age 65) Manhattan, New York City, New York
Occupation(s)	Planetary Scientist, Physicist
Awards	Harold C. Urey Prize (1988)

Jonathan I. Lunine (born June 26, 1959) is an American planetary scientist and physicist. Lunine is the Chief Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA and Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech. Previously he was the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Having published more than 400 research papers, Lunine is at the forefront of research into planet formation, evolution, and habitability. His work includes analysis of brown dwarfs, gas giants, and planetary satellites. Within the Solar System, bodies with potential organic chemistry and prebiotic conditions, particularly Saturn's moon Titan, have been the focus of Lunine's research.

Lunine was an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini mission to Saturn, and on the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as co-investigator on the Juno mission launched in 2011 to Jupiter. He is a co-investigator on the MISE instrument and member of the gravity science team on Europa Clipper. He is also a member of the 3GM gravity experiment on ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. He was the principal investigator of a proposed astrobiology mission to Enceladus called Enceladus Life Finder.

Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, which gave him its Basic Science Award in 2009. In 2015 he was awarded the Jean Dominique Cassini medal of the European Geosciences Union. He earned a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester in 1980, followed by M.S. (1983) and Ph.D. (1985) degrees in Planetary Science from the California Institute of Technology.

Lunine was raised Jewish, but is a convert to Catholicism who helped found the Society of Catholic Scientists. He delivers lectures on Georges Lemaître, and other topics concerning the relationship of science and faith.

Selected publications

Technical books

• Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World, 2nd Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
• Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2005)

Scholarly articles

• H B Niemann; S K Atreya; S J Bauer; et al. (8 December 2005). "The abundances of constituents of Titan's atmosphere from the GCMS instrument on the Huygens probe". Nature. 438 (7069): 779–84. Bibcode:2005Natur.438..779N. doi:10.1038/NATURE04122. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 16319830. Wikidata Q28284580.
• J Hunter Waite; Michael R Combi; Wing-Huen Ip; et al. (10 March 2006). "Cassini ion and neutral mass spectrometer: Enceladus plume composition and structure". Science. 311 (5766): 1419–22. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1121290. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 16527970. Wikidata Q28301206.
• Stofan ER; Elachi C; Lunine JI; et al. (1 January 2007). "The lakes of Titan". Nature. 445 (7123): 61–64. doi:10.1038/NATURE05438. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 17203056. Wikidata Q34001749.

See also

• Theoretical planetology