Kevin Hand is an astrobiologist and

planetary scientist Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their ...

JPL The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researche ...

. He is also the founder of Cosmos Education and was its president until 2007. He was working at

NASA Ames The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

when he was inspired to form Cosmos Education in 1999 after getting a grant from the Earth and Space Foundation to tour African schools to talk about how education relates to space research.

Education and career

Hand studied psychology and physics as an undergraduate at Dartmouth. He earned a master's degree at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in mechanical engineering while also working as a public policy research associate at Stanford's

Center for International Security and Cooperation Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

(CISAC). He chose the question of whether

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliffs, Alexan ...

's putative ocean could harbor life as his Geological & Environmental Sciences PhD dissertation topic, under the direction of

Christopher Chyba Christopher F. Chyba is an American astrobiologist and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1982, and studied mathematic ...

, earning the doctorate in 2007. While a PhD student, he was chosen by

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

to take

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

samples from

hydrothermal vents Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hots ...

in subsea expeditions to the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a Divergent boundary, divergent or constructive Plate tectonics, plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest mountai ...

and

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise (EPR) is a mid-ocean rise (usually termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), at a divergent tectonic plate bound ...

. He was a featured scientist in Cameron's 2005

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

documentary, ''

Aliens of the Deep ''Aliens of the Deep'' is a 2005 American documentary film directed in part by James Cameron alongside fellow cameraman and friend Steven Quale, who served as second unit director on Cameron's ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'' (1997) and later ''A ...

''. At a 2014 NASA panel discussion, Hand predicted that extraterrestrial life would be found within 20 years. Hand published the book '' Alien Oceans'' in 2020.

Selected publications

* * , a review of

Bibliography

* '' Alien Oceans'' (2020)

References

External links

* *
Video of Kevin Hand's April 2019 non-technical talk on "Ocean Worlds of the Outer Solar System" as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hand, Kevin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Planetary scientists Dartmouth College alumni Stanford University alumni Astrobiologists Jet Propulsion Laboratory faculty 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists