Chair Holders

2023 to 2024

2022 to 2023

  • Biography
    Sheri Wells-Jensen Sheri Wells-Jensen is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. A linguist with research interests in phonetics, braille, language creation, and disability studies, her early work on the potential for non-physically mediated language acquisition (by AI or other non-human beings) led to an ongoing interest in … Continue reading Sheri Wells-Jensen →

2021 to 2022

  • Biography
    Lucas Mix As an associate of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, Mix studies the intersection of philosophy and biology. He is the author of “Life-Concepts from Aristotle to Darwin: On Vegetable Souls” (Springer International Publishing, 2018) and “Life in Space: Astrobiology for Everyone” (Harvard University Press, 2009). He also serves as project … Continue reading Lucas Mix →

2020 to 2021

  • Biography
    David Baron David Baron is a journalist, author, and broadcaster who has spent his thirty-year career largely in public radio. He has worked as an environment correspondent for NPR, a science reporter for Boston’s WBUR, and health and science editor for PRI’s The World. At the Kluge Center, Baron is working on a project examining the “Mars … Continue reading David Baron →

2019 to 2020

  • Biography
    Susan Schneider Susan Schneider is the founding director of the new Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). She writes about the nature of the self and mind, especially from the vantage point of issues in philosophy, AI, cognitive science and astrobiology. She was 2019-2020 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration … Continue reading Susan Schneider →

2018 to 2019

  • Biography
    Bruce Clarke Bruce Clarke is the Paul Whitfield Horn professor of literature and science in the Department of English at Texas Tech University. His research focuses on 19th- and 20th-century literature and science, with special interests in systems theory, narrative theory and ecology. At the Library, he will work on a project titled “Astrobiology, Ecology and the … Continue reading Bruce Clarke →

2017 to 2018

  • Biography
    Lucianne Walkowicz Walkowicz is an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the 2017-2018 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/LOC Chair in Astrobiology. They study the ethics of Mars exploration, stellar magnetic activity, how stars influence a planet’s suitability as a host for alien life, and how to use advanced computing to discover unusual events in large astronomical … Continue reading Lucianne Walkowicz →

2016 to 2017

  • Biography
    Luis Campos A historian of science, Campos is Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of New Mexico and a Senior Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy. As a scholar-in-residence at the Kluge Center Campos used the Library’s collections to examine the intersection between astrobiology and synthetic biology. His analysis … Continue reading Luis Campos →

2015 to 2016

  • Biography
    Nathaniel C. Comfort A well-known historian of recent science, biology and biomedicine, Nathanial Comfort will begin on October 1, 2015 as the third Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology at The John W. Kluge Center. As Astrobiology Chair, Comfort will use the Library’s collections to examine the history of the genomic revolution in origin-of-life research, … Continue reading Nathaniel C. Comfort →

2013 to 2014

  • Biography
    Steven J. Dick The former Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Dick is an astronomer, author, and historian who served as the chief historian for NASA from 2003 to 2009 and formerly served as an astronomer and historian of science at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. … Continue reading Steven J. Dick →

2012 to 2013

  • Biography
    David Grinspoon A well-known researcher in planetary science, author of “Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life,” and former curator of astrobiology in the Department of Space Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Grinspoon held the inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology. As a scholar-in-residence at the Kluge Center … Continue reading David Grinspoon →