Joseph Veverka

Institution:	Cornell University
Role:	Data Processing and Image Analysis
Bio:	Professor Joseph Veverka, Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell, has been involved in numerous imaging investigations on NASA solar system exploration missions including Mariner 9, Viking, Voyager, Galileo, Mars Observer, Mars Global Surveyor, Cassini, and NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous). His research has emphasized photometric and geologic studies of small bodies: planetary satellites, asteroids and comets. He played a leading role in the study of Phobos and Deimos, the two satellites of Mars on the Mariner 9 and Viking missions, and coordinated the efforts of the Galileo Imaging Team during the first-ever spacecraft encounter with an asteroid (951 Gaspra, 1991). He is the Team Leader of the Imaging/Spectral Team NEAR, the first mission to have carried out a comprehensive orbital investigation of an asteroid (433 Eros, 2000-2001), and the Principal Investigator on the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR), a mission to study the diversity of comet nuclei scheduled for launch in July 2002. He is especially interested in the physical and geological processes that affect the evolution of comet nuclei. For Deep Impact, Dr. Veverka will be responsible for the reduction of the imaging and spectral data and for developing a three-dimensional shape model of the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 from the flyby images.

Biographical details contained on these pages were correct during the Deep Impact mission which ended in 2006. Several scientists from Deep Impact are now working on related missions such as EPOXI and Stardust-NExT.