Chief Scientist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/ IPAC
Dr. David Ciardi is the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) Chief Scientist at Caltech/JPL and has been a leader in infrared astronomy and exoplanet research for over 20 years. He is a member of the science teams for the exoplanet-finding space missions CoRoT, Kepler, K2, and TESS where he has been a leader of the ground-based follow-up observations of transiting planet candidates from these space missions. He has extensive experience in the use of combining space-based and ground-based observations in the discovery and characterization of exoplanets. He has co-authored more than 260 refereed papers, and in 2016, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work on Kepler, leading the ground-based effort as part of the Kepler discovery of exoplanets.