Science Leadership
George Ricker
TESS Principal Investigator
David Latham
Director of Science
Co-I
Roland Vanderspek
TESS Deputy PI
Co-I
Co-Investigators
Sara Seager
Former Deputy Director of Science
Dave Charbonneau
CFA
Professor of Astronomy
Joshua Winn
Princeton University
Professor of Astrophysical Sciences
Gaspar Bakos
Princeton University
Timothy Brown
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope
Jorgen Christensen-Dalsgaard
Aarhus University
Mark Clampin
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Drake Deming
University of Maryland
Ted Dunham
Lowell Observatory
Matthew Holman
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Garrett Jernigan
ESpace/MIT
Lisa Kaltenegger
Cornell University
TESS Habitability
WG Lead
Gregory Laughlin
Yale University
Douglas Lin
University of California, Santa Cruz
Jack Lissauer
NASA Ames Research Center
Peter McCullough
Space Telescope Science Institute
Stephen Rinehart
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center – Project Scientist
Dimitar Sasselov
Harvard University
Andrew Szentgyorgyi
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Stephanie Udry
Geneva Observatory
TESS Science Office (TSO)
TSO @ MIT:
Glen Petitpas
MIT
MIT-TESS Science Office Manager
Avi Shporer
MIT
Research Scientist:
Pipeline, Data Validation, TOIs
Katharine Hesse
MIT
TOI & Vetting Lead
Technical Staff
William Fong
MIT
QLP/Software Engineer
Jack Haviland
MIT
QLP/Software Engineer
Natalia Guerrero
MIT / University of Florida
MIT-TESS Communications Lead
Former TSO @ MIT
Zachory Berta-Thompson
UC Boulder
General
Scott Dynes
MIT
Aylin García Soto
MIT
Research Support Assistant
Ana Glidden
MIT
TSO Engineer
Lizhou Sha
MIT
TESS QLP Engineer Technical Staff
Evan Tey
MIT
Software Support Technician
Liang Yu
MIT
Graduate Student
QLP/Astronet
Daniel Yaholomi
SAO
Research Assistant TFOP
TESS Input Catalog (TIC):
Martin Paegert
SAO
TIC: Database Lead
Collaborator
Joshua Pepper
Lehigh University
TIC
Collaborator
Keivan Stassun
Vanderbilt University
Target Selection and Target Portal
Co-I
Guillermo Torres
SAO
TIC and CTL, TOIs, TFOP,
Validation
Doppler Tomography
Co-I
TSO Team:
Kevin Burdge
MIT
Pappalardo Fellow
Chelsea Huang
University of Southern Queensland
ARC DECRA Fellow + Lecturer
Michelle Kunimoto
UBC
Assistant Professor
Benjamin Rackham
MIT
51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellow
Joseph Rodriguez
Michigan State University
Assistant Professor
Clara Sousa-Silva
MIT
Postdoctoral Associate
Keivan Stassun
Vanderbilt University
Target Selection and Target Portal
Co-I
Guillermo Torres
SAO
TIC and CTL, TOIs, TFOP,
Validation
Doppler Tomography
Co-I
Andrew Vanderburg
MIT
Assistant Professor
Steven Villanueva
MIT
Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellow
Former TSO Team
Tansu Daylan
Washington University in St. Louis.
Assistant Professor
Jason Dittmann
MIT
51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellow
Gilbert Esquerdo
SAO
TFOP
Maximillian Günther
MIT
Torres Postdoctoral Fellow
Jonathan Irwin
SAO
TIC and CTL, TOIs, TFOP,
M Dwarfs
Akshata Krishnamurthy
MIT
Graduate Student
Ian Wong
MIT
51 Pegasi b Fellow
TSO Vetters:
Zahra Essack
MIT
Graduate Student
Ismael Mireles
University of New Mexico
Graduate Student
Hugh Osborn
University of Bern & MIT
CHESS Fellow
Postdoctoral Associate
Pamela Rowden
The Open University
Research Scientist
Alton Spencer
Western Connecticut State University
David Watanabe
Community Contributor
Suzanne Taylor
Western Colorado University
Professor of Physics
Michael Bess
University of New Mexico
Graduate Student
Nikita Saini
University of Maine
Graduate Student
Jensen Pierce Thomas Lawerence
MIT
Graduate Student
Nathan Whitsett
Washington University in St. Louis
Graduate Student
Former TSO Vetters
Sarah Ballard
MIT
Torres Postdoctoral Fellow
Natalie Batalha
UC Santa Cruz
Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Luke Bouma
Princeton University
Graduate student
Jingcheng Huang
MIT
Graduate Student
Dana Louie
University of Maryland
Graduate Student
Charlotte Minsky
MIT
Undergraduate Student
Prajwal Niraula
MIT
Graduate Student
Zhuchang Zhan
MIT
Graduate Student
Goran Zivanovic
MIT
Research Assistant
Graduate Student
Payload Operations Center (POC)
Chris Burke
MIT
GI Program Research Scientist
Robovetter
Michael Fausnaugh
MIT
Research Scientist:
Pipeline, Data Validation, TOIs
James Francis
MIT
Robert Goeke
MIT
Edward Morgan
MIT
Alan Levine
MIT
Co-I
Alexander Rudat
MIT
Technical Staff
TESS SOC Manager
Scott McDermott
Proto-Logic
Michael Vezie
MIT
Technical Staff
Software Engineer, Sponsored Research Technical Staff
Joel Villaseñor
MIT
Payload Scientist
Co-I
Former POC
John Doty
Noqsi Aerospace Ltd.
Co-I
Gábor Fűrész
MIT
Kari Haworth
MIT
Goddard Space Flight Center Guest Investigator Program (GSFC GI)
Thomas Barclay
GSFC
GI
Patricia Boyd
GSFC
Project Scientist
Knicole Colon
GSFC
GI
Tess Jaffe
GSFC
GI
Koji Mukai
GSFC
GI
Elisa Quintana
GSFC
GI
Joshua Schlieder
GSFC
GI
Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC)
Jon Jenkins
NASA Ames Research Center, Manager and Science Lead
Co-I
Douglas Caldwell
SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Support Scientist
Mark Rose
Leidos/NASA Ames Research Center, Software Engineer
Jeffery C. Smith
SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Data Scientist
Peter Tenenbaum
SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Lead Software Engineer
Eric Ting
NASA Ames Research Center, Lead Operations Engineer
Joseph Twicken
SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Lead Data Scientist
Bill Wohler
SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center
Former SPOC
Jennifer Campbell
Lead Operations Engineer
Roberto Carlino
KBR Wyle Services/NASA Ames Research Center, Software Developer
Aaron Dean Charon
Software Quality Assurance
Miles Cote
Lead Software Engineer
Misty Davies
NASA Ames Research Center, Software Development Manager
Forrest Girouard
Software Engineer
Todd C. Klaus
Lead Software Engineer
Jie Li
Aerospacecomputing Inc./NASA Ames Research Center, Data Scientist
Masoud Mansour-Semani
KBR Wyle Services/NASA Ames Research Center, Systems Engineer
Sean McCauliff
Lead Software Engineer
Robert L. Morris
SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, Data Scientist
Dwight Sanderfer
Jacobs/NASA Ames Research Center, Software Development Manager
TESS Follow-Up Observing Program (TFOP)
Allyson Bieryla
SAO
TFOP
Jennifer Burt
MIT
Torres Postdoctoral Fellow
Karen Collins
SAO
TOI/TFOP
SG1 Lead
Ian Crossfield
TFOP SG5 lead
University of Kansas
Assistant Professor
Diana Dragomir
TOI/TFOP
SG5 Lead
Samuel Quinn
SAO
TOI/TFOP
SG2 Lead
Exoplanet Follow-up Observing Program (ExoFOP):
David Ciardi
NExScI
TFOP,ExoFOP-TESS
SG3 Lead
Jessie Christiansen
NExScI
ExoFOP-TESS
Mike Lund
NExScI
ExoFOP-TESS
Cool Dwarf Catalog
Courtney D. Dressing
UC Berkeley
Sébastien Lépine
Georgia State University
Andrew W. Mann
UNC-Chapel Hill
Philip S. Muirhead
Boston University
Bárbara Rojas-Ayala
Universidad de Tarapacá
Collaborators:
- Jacob Bean: University of Chicago
- Francois Bouchy: Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
- Lars Buchhave: Copenhagen University
- Nat Butler: Arizona State University
- Paul Butler: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Justin Crepp: Notre Dame
- Nathan de Lee: Vanderbilt University
- Michael Endl: University of Texas, Austin
- Jian Ge: University of Florida
- Thomas Henning: Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg
- Andrew Howard: University of Hawai’i
- Shigeru Ida: Tokyo Institute of Technology
- John Johnson: CFA
- Nobu Kawai: Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Hans Kjeldsen: Aarhus University
- Phillip MacQueen: University of Texas, Austin
- Timothy Morton: Princeton University
- Norio Narita: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
- Enric Palle: Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
- Francesco Pepe: Geneva University
- Andreas Quirrenbach: Landessternwarte Königstuhl – Universität Heidelberg
- Bun’ei Sato: Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Alessandro Sozzetti: Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino
Partners:
MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI), MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory (LL), and NASA together led the development of the TESS mission and the concept study that resulted in selection for flight. MIT is the PI institution for the mission.
NASA selected TESS as a MIDEX class mission in 2013.
MKI and LL designed, fabricated, tested and delivered the four wide-field cameras and associated electronics.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and MKI together supplied the payload data handling computer.
Orbital Sciences Corporation ATK provided the spacecraft, led the observatory integration and testing, and is responsible for the Mission Operations Center in Virginia.
As mission manager, NASA Goddard provides systems engineering, safety and mission assurance oversight, and communications and public engagement.
MKI is responsible for operating the payload during flight and for the Science Operations Center located at MIT.
NASA’s Ames Research Center is responsible for the science data processing pipeline, a component of the Science Operations Center.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics leads the TESS Science Office, and jointly with MIT is responsible for directing its activities.
NASA Goddard also leads the Guest Investigator (GI) program for the community to pursue science investigations outside the core mission science goals of TESS.
Space Telescope Science Institute administers the mission’s data archives at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).