Professor, The Ohio State University
B. Scott Gaudi is an American astronomer, exoplanet hunter, and (accidental) astropolitician. He is the Thomas Jefferson Professor for Discovery and Space Exploration, a Professor of Astronomy, and Chair of Undergraduate Studies at The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy. He was chair of the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group, chair of the NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee, and co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Exoplanet Science Strategy study. He is currently the co-chair of the NASA Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) concept study. Gaudi has been a faculty member of The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy since 2006. He previously was a Menzel Fellow at Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Gaudi was the recipient of the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), and received NASA’s Outstanding Public Leadership Medal. Most importantly, Gaudi has worked to bring equality to underrepresented groups in astronomy and to eliminate harassment of all kinds.