Dr. Mario R. Perez
Mario R. Perez is the NASA Program Scientist for several Exoplanet Exploration missions such as the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM-Lite), Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), Keck Observatory, Large Binocular Interferometer (LBTI) and the NExScI (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute). Fundamental advancements in planetary research are being made in this field, through the incessant detection of an increasing sample of more than 340 exoplanets discovered since 1995. Continuous efforts in measuring their atmospheric composition and direct imaging of these exoplanets will be carried out in the next decade, with a more focused interest on earth analogs.
Dr. Perez is also the Discipline Scientist for Ultraviolet and Optical technologies within the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, Science Mission Directorate. In the UV/Optical portfolio, about a dozen projects are funded annually through the Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis (APRA) program within the Research Opportunity in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) call for proposals. This portfolio is managed to provide incipient technical capabilities that lead to the development of flight software and hardware to be utilized by future missions. The successful proposals conduct investigations on detector development, suborbital payloads, laboratory astrophysics and supporting technologies.
Dr. Perez comes from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where he spent seven years working on space, astrophysics and technology issues. Prior to this appointment he worked in the Washington DC area both for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as IUE resident astronomer and for NASA science contracts with several corporations. He completed his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering and Physics and started working in astronomy while at the European Southern Observatory (Chile and Germany). He received his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy from Brigham Young University and a MBA from University of New Mexico. Dr. Perez’s research interests include star formation, young stellar objects - in particular Herbig Ae/Be stars - stellar populations in galaxies, ultraviolet spectroscopy, and space instrumentation.
