Pascal Lee | Haughton-Mars Project Participant 2007

Pascal Lee

Function: Principal Investigator

Affiliation: Mars Institute / SETI Institute

Dr Pascal Lee is co-founder and chairman of the Mars Institute, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, and the Principal Investigator of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. He holds an Ingénieur degree (ME) in Engineering Geology & Geophysics from the University of Paris (1987), and a MS (1993) and Ph.D. (1997) in Astronomy & Space Sciences from Cornell University.

Dr. Lee's research interests focus on Mars, asteroids and impact craters. He is particularly interested in the history of water on Mars and in the geologic and physical conditions allowing life to develop on planets. Dr. Lee often visits the Earth's polar regions and other extreme environments for planetary analog studies.

In 1997, as a National Research Council postdoctoral Research Associate at NASA Ames, Pascal Lee initiated the NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP), an international multidisciplinary field research project centered on the scientific study of the Haughton impact structure and surrounding terrain, Devon Island, High Arctic, viewed as a Mars analog site. The HMP explores possible parallels and differences between the Earth and Mars, and supports field studies of new technologies, strategies, and human factors in preparation for the future exploration of both the Moon and Mars by robots and humans. Dr Lee has led nine HMP expeditions to the Arctic to date, with core support in the US provided by NASA and the United States Marine Corps. Pascal Lee also conducts research in Antarctica. In 1988, he wintered over for 14 months at Dumont d'Urville Station as station chief geophysicist. In 1995-96, he was a field team member in the US Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) Program. In 1998 and 1999, he was field scientist for the NASA-Carnegie Mellon University Robotic Antarctic Search for Meteorites (RAMS) Project.

Dr. Lee has been a participant in several NASA solar system spacecraft exploration missions. He was graduate student associate on Voyager's imaging team for the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune and its moon Triton, graduate student associate on Galileo's imaging team for the flybys of asteroids 951 Gaspra and 243 Ida, graduate student associate on Mars Observer's camera team, and a collaborator on the Mars Polar Lander's participating scientist team. In 2002, Dr. Lee was principal investigator of the H2O Mars Exploration Rover (HOMER) Mars Scout mission proposal to NASA, with the SETI Institute, Boeing Company, Firestar Engineering, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, U.S. Army, and U.S. Geological Survey as key institutional partners.

Pascal Lee is the author and co-author of over 100 scientific publications and the recipient of research grants from NASA, the National Research Council, the Canadian Space Agency, and the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research & Exploration. He is an advocate of human planetary exploration and has lectured widely on planetary science and exploration. He was invited as Logan Club Guest Lecturer at the Geological Survey of Canada (1999) and was Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee (Fall 2003). He also was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University (Spring 2004).

Dr. Lee is recipient of the Eleanor Norton York Award from the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University (1994), the Vision to Reality Award from the Space Frontier Foundation (2003), and the United States Antarctic Service Medal.

Pascal Lee enjoys flying and photography. He is an FAA-certified helicopter flight instructor and lives happily in Santa Clara, CA.