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Dr. Pascal Lee is a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute, the Mars Institute, and NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He is also professor of planetary sciences at Kepler Space University, and chief scientist for Ceres Robotics, a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) industry provider. He also serves as the National Space Society’s Vice-President for Planetary Development.
Dr. Lee holds an M.E. in geology from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and a MS and PhD in astronomy and space sciences from Cornell University where he was Carl Sagan’s last T.A. His research focuses on the Moon and Mars and planning the future human exploration of these worlds. He recently co-discovered the Noctis volcano, an ancient giant volcano near Mars’ equator.
Dr. Lee has led over 30 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica to study Mars by comparison with the Earth. He wintered over for 402 days at Dumont d’Urville Station in Antarctica and led the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition – a record-setting vehicular traverse across the Arctic along the fabled Northwest Passage. The epic journey is now the subject of the award-winning motion picture documentary film, Passage to Mars. Dr. Lee was also scientist-pilot of the first field test of NASA’s Lunar Electric Rover, a concept pressurized rover for the future human exploration of the Moon.
Dr. Lee is currently a member of the US National Academies’ steering committee on “A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars”. He is a recipient of the United States Antarctica Service Medal, the National Space Society Space Pioneer Award for Science and Engineering, the Space Frontier Foundation’s Vision to Reality Award, and the Sagan Prize for the Popularization of Science.
In his free time, Pascal likes to be walked by his dog Apollo, fly, and paint. He is an FAA-certified helicopter commercial pilot and flight instructor. His oil paintings on Mars exploration and spacetime travel are in collections worldwide.