Sara Seager

Professor Sara Seager is a Professor of Physics, Planetary Science, and Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her ground-breaking research ranges from the foundation of exoplanet atmospheres to innovative theories about life beyond Earth to the development of novel space mission concepts. She served as Deputy Science Director of NASA’s TESS mission and PI of the JPL-MIT CubeSat ASTERIA. She has led major efforts to design future space-based missions to discover another Earth and currently leads the Morning Star Missions to Venus to search for signs of life in the Venusian clouds. Her many honors include a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, membership in the US National Academy of Sciences, appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and Asteroid 9729 named in her honor. She is the author of The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir.