Fall 2023 Data Science Seminar Series
Anjali Tripathi–From Points of Light to Visions of Other Worlds: Communicating Exoplanet Exploration and Science at NASA Through Visualization and Storytelling

Speaker: Anjali Tripathi, Ph.D., NASA Exoplanet Science Ambassador, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Faculty Host: Ann McNamara, PVFA

Abstract: Today, the number of known planets stands above 5,500, with knowledge that there are hundreds of billions more in the Milky Way Galaxy, alone.  This stunning discovery of exoplanets (planets beyond our Solar System) has transformed our understanding of what it means to be a planet and our place in the cosmos.  In this talk, I will tell the expanding story of exoplanet exploration and focus on the essential roles of art and storytelling. I will share how NASA incorporates illustration and design, from the earliest stages of a mission concept through to visualizations of scientific results. I will offer examples from real exoplanets and their science fiction counterparts, as well as upcoming flagship NASA missions, including the successor to the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be instrumental in the search for life beyond Earth.

Biography: Dr. Anjali Tripathi is NASA’s inaugural Exoplanet Science Ambassador – the lead science communicator for NASA’s exoplanet program. As an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), with a background in computational modeling of exoplanet atmospheres, she also designs new space missions and contributes to climate adaptation research. Tripathi is a Research Associate of the Smithsonian and a science communicator for PBS and the National Academy of Sciences. Featured by the BBC, HBO, and TED, she has contributed to multiple books, including Science and Cooking and The Tech that Comes Next. Since 2020, Dr. Tripathi has served on the Los Angeles County Public Health Department’s COVID data team, leading data visualization for vaccinations, and she chairs the UK Foreign Office’s Marshall Scholarship Selection Committee, Southwest US Region. She previously served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as acting director of the National Science and Technology Council, and in the US Department of Agriculture, as a White House Fellow.  Dr. Tripathi earned her PhD in Astrophysics at Harvard, her MPhil in Astronomy as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Cambridge, and her SB in Physics, with a Minor in Applied International Studies, at MIT.

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For more information about TAMIDS tutorial series, please contact Ms. Jennifer South at jsouth@tamu.edu