Pascal Lee
National Space Society Vice President for Planetary Development
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.
Pascal Lee studied physics at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and holds an M.E. in engineering geology and geophysics from Polytech-Sorbonne. He went on to earn a MS and PhD in astronomy and space sciences from Cornell University where he was Carl Sagan’s last T.A.
Dr Lee’s research focuses on the Moon and Mars, in particular the history of water and ice, and planning the future human exploration of these worlds. He recently announced the discovery, with his student, Sourabh Shubham, of a previously unrecognized giant volcano on Mars, the Noctis Volcano. Dr Lee also works on small bodies, in particular the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.
Pascal 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 the French Antarctic base, Dumont d’Urville, and also led the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition – a record-setting vehicular drive across the Arctic along the fabled Northwest Passage, and now the subject of the award-winning motion picture documentary film, Passage To Mars.
Dr Lee is 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.
