VERITAS Team

Dr. Sue Smrekar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the principal investigator for the VERITAS mission. JPL will provide project management. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) will provide the mission’s infrared mapper. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) and France’s Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) will contribute to the radar and other parts of the mission. Lockheed Martin is a partner on the VERITAS mission, and will build the spacecraft.

VERITAS Mission Leadership Team

Suzanne Smrekar, JPL – Principal Investigator

Darby Dyar, Planetary Science Institute/Mount Holyoke College – Deputy Principal Investigator & VEM Instrument Co-lead

Rick Nybakken, JPL – Project Manager

Scott Hensley, JPL – Project Scientist

John Brophy, JPL – Project Systems Engineer

Joern Helbert, DLR – VEM Instrument Co-lead

Bruce Campbell, NASM – VISAR instrument co-lead

Marco Mastrogiuseppe, University of Rome – VISAR instrument co-lead

Luciano Iess, University of Rome – Gravity Science investigation co-lead

Erwan Mazarico, NASA GSFC – Gravity Science investigation co-lead

VERITAS team photo collage
Some key members of the VERITAS team (left to right, top first): Joern Helbert, Darby Dyar, Sue Smrekar, Luciano Iess, Scott Hensley.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Dr. Smrekar is an internationally recognized Venus surface and interior expert. Her work focuses on understanding the key factors that cause terrestrial planets, especially Venus and Earth, to evolve along different paths. Her research integrates geophysical modeling, data analysis, and geologic constraints. Dr. Smrekar has assembled a diverse science team of leading experts from around the world, with 16 NASA-funded members and nine foreign co-investigators, including two postdocs. The experienced Venus scientists on VERITAS’ diverse interdisciplinary science team will use opportunities throughout the mission to train the next generation of leaders from among the team’s mid- and early-career scientists.

Science Team

Suzanne Smrekar

Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna

Doris Breuer

Debra Buczkowski

Bruce Campbell

Anne Davaille

Gaetano Di Achille

Melinda Darby Dyar

Caleb Fassett

Martha Gilmore

Joern Helbert

Scott Hensley

Robert Herrick

Luciano Iess

Lauren Margaret Jozwiak

Tiffany Kataria

Marco Mastrogiuseppe

Erwan Mazarico

Nils Müller

Daniel Nunes

Maria Carmela Raguso

Joann Stock

Ellen Stofan

Constantine Tsang

Jennifer Whitten

Thomas Widemann

Howard Zebker

Project Team

Alessandra Babuscia

Pierre Bousquet

Mark Boyles

John Brophy

Matthew Cox

Bill Frazier

Pieter Kallemeyn

Dorothy Lewis

Rick Nybakken

Angelo Olivieri

Dragana Perkovic-Martin

Gisbert Peter

Lori Risse

Adnan Selod

Mark Wallace

Josh Wood

Tung-Han You

DSAC-2 TDO Project Team

Eric Burt

Todd Ely

Donald Heyer

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