.Carolyn Porco, a major star of planetary science and public outreach, was born in New York City on March 6, 1953. She's currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado. However, her career goes beyond academia.
Porco was a member of the
Voyager 2 imaging team when the spacecraft encountered Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. A decade later she led the imaging science team for the
Cassini mission to Saturn, and after that was on the
New Horizons imaging team for Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. She serves on several important NASA advisory committees.
She's co-authored over 125 scientific papers. Besides doing the science, Porco also takes the science to the public, being very active in public outreach.
Among her many honors and distinctions, she was named by
The Sunday Times (London) as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century and put on
Wired magazine's 2008 “Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.”
