Dr. Randii Wessen

Dr. Randii Wessen has been an employee of the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for twenty-three years. He is currently the Deputy Proposal Manager for the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to the Moon. Prior to this Dr. Wessen was the Navigator Program System Engineer. This program’s goal is the detection of Earth-like planets around other stars, if they exist. He also was the Telecommunications & Mission Systems Manager for the Mars Program, the Supervisor for the Science System Engineering Group, Manager of the Cassini Science Planning & Operations Element, the Galileo Deputy Sequence Team Chief, and the Voyager Science Sequence Coordinator for the Uranus & Neptune encounters. Dr. Wessen received his Bachelors of Science in both Physics & Astronomy from Stony Brook University, a Masters of Science in Astronautics from the University of Southern California, and a Doctorate in Operations Research from the University of Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom. He co-authored the books “Neptune: the Planet, Rings and Satellites” & “Planetary Ring Systems.” He was the recipient of NASA's Exceptional Service Medal for his contributions to the Voyager 2 Neptune Encounter and has nine NASA Group Achievement Awards. Dr. Wessen is also a fellow of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society.