Linda Spilker is an American planetary scientist who served as the project scientist for the Cassini mission exploring the planet Saturn.[2][3][4][5][6] Her research interests include the evolution and dynamics of Saturn's rings.[7] She is presently the Project Scientist for the Voyager missions. [8]
Linda Spilker | |
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Born | Linda Joyce Bies[1] 1955 (age 68–69) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Planetary Science |
Institutions | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Thesis | Wave structure in planetary rings (1992) |
Doctoral advisor | Christopher T. Russell |
Spilker received a B.A.in Physics from California State University, Fullerton in 1977 and an M.S. in Physics from California State University, Los Angeles in 1983. She obtained a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA in 1992. She joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1977, initially working on the Voyager missions that were launched the same year.[9] She became a Cassini mission scientist in 1990.[2] In 1997, she was the editor of a NASA publication that summarizes the mission's legacy.[10] In 2010 she became the Cassini mission project scientist, a role in which she directed the entire team's scientific investigations.[3][4][5][6][9] She has appeared as herself in multiple television documentary programs, including several in the PBS Nova series.[1]