Wesley Huntress

Wesley T. Huntress, Jr.
Nationality	American
Education	PhD in Chemical Physics
Alma mater	Brown University and Stanford University
Occupation	Space scientist
Years active	1969 to present
Employer	Carnegie Institution
Known for	Developing solar system exploration programs for NASA
Title	Director Emeritus of the Geophysical Laboratory
Board member of	NASA Advisory Council
Awards	1998 Carl Sagan Memorial Award

Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. is an American space scientist. An astrochemist and space scientist, Huntress worked for about twenty years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the 1980s he was also a videogame designer, producing games for Apple computers. In 1988 Huntress moved to NASA headquarters, where he would serve in several positions, including Director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division and Associate Administrator for Space Science.

As a part of these positions, Huntress oversaw all NASA research missions to the planets and asteroids of our solar system, including missions to Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Following his work with NASA, he became the Director of the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution, and the president of The Planetary Society. He has also worked on the NASA Advisory Council, and is a public advocate for space exploration.

Wesley Huntress was interested in space exploration from a young age, describing himself as a "Sputnik kid", who entered the sciences in college out of an interest in joining the space race between the US and USSR. Huntress was awarded a B.S. in Chemistry from Brown University in 1964 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Stanford University in 1968. Following his degrees, he began a career as an astrochemist and space scientist Brown University would later bestow an honorary doctoral of sciences degree upon Huntress as well, during its 2005 convocation ceremonies.

Huntress spent much of his career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also teaching as a professor at the associated California Institute of Technology. He started at the lab following his PhD as a National Research Council Resident Associate, and joined the lab full-time in 1969 "as a research scientist specializing in ion chemistry and planetary atmospheres" according to NASA. His work there included research into the chemical evolution in interstellar clouds, comets and planetary atmospheres. His positions at the lab included those as "co-investigator for the Ion Mass Spectrometer experiment in the Giotto Halley's Comet mission, as the Coma Interdisciplinary Scientist for the Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission, and as JPL Study Scientist for the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and Cassini missions". He was also a part of the research into molecule formation on Titan, research that was published in 1981 by Nature, as well as ion cyclotron resonance and ion-molecule reactions in off-Earth environments.

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