Grinspoon tapped for prestigious post at Library of Congress

Grinspoon

David H. Grinspoon, an adjunct professor of astrophysical and planetary science at the University of Colorado Boulder and curator of astrobiology in the Department of Space Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, has been named the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology in the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

The chair is a joint project between the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the Kluge Center.

Grinspoon is a researcher in planetary science and is the author of “Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life” and “Venus Revealed.” In the application for the one-year appointment, he detailed a book he wants to write about the Anthropocene Era, a series of workshops he wants to run, and a panel discussion to which the public would be invited at the Library of Congress.

Grinspoon is an adviser to NASA on space exploration strategy and serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on Venus Express, the European Space Agency’s first mission to Venus. In 2006, the American Astronomical Society awarded him the Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication of planetary science.