Dr. Susan Kurtik holds an MS degree in Physical Chemistry from UCLA and a PhD in Computer Science from UCSB. She retired from JPL in 2015 after 26 years working on JPL 's deep space missions, including Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, various Asteroid and Comet Missions, and the Mars orbiter and lander missions. She was responsible for managing telecommunications service support for missions using NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), including NASA missions and our international partners, ESA, JAXA, and ISRO, missions. Her role gave her an incredible opportunity to team with brilliant engineers and scientists involved in space exploration around the world and to witness all mission critical events first hand in the JPL Deep Space Operations Center. Her most recent experiences included support for landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, helping ESA land on a comet, and helping India reach Mars on their first mission to the red planet. Susan wants to use her position as a Solar System Ambassador to inspire young people with the wonder, excitement, challenges and joy of deep space exploration.