Program News and Announcements

24 June 2024

NASA Astrophysics Division Selects Six US Scientists for Joint ESA-NASA Science Team

NASA’s Astrophysics Division has selected six US scientists to serve on the joint ESA-NASA Science Team for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. The LISA Science Team will provide scientific stewardship for the mission and serve as ambassadors between the agencies and the scientific community.

The representatives are:

• Neil Cornish, Montana State University
• Erin Kara, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Joey Shapiro Key, University of Washington Bothell
• Deirdre Shoemaker, University of Texas Austin
• Krista Lynne Smith, Texas A&M
• Stephen Taylor, Vanderbilt University

The US representatives will join eleven European scientists selected by ESA through an open call as well as two interdisciplinary scientists and a representative from the LISA Consortium to in the LISA Science Team. The team will be co-chaired by the ESA and NASA LISA Project Scientists. The full membership of the team will be announced by ESA in the coming weeks.

The LISA mission was recently adopted into ESA’s flight program and is targeted for launch in 2035. During its 4.5 year nominal mission, LISA will observe gravitational waves in the millihertz band generated by compact binary systems, merging supermassive black holes, and other exotic phenomena. Learn more about LISA at http://lisa.nasa.gov.