Factors and Unknowns in the Search for Communicable Civilizations

Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Lunine is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability, and what kinds of exotic environments (methane lakes, etc.) might host a kind of chemistry sophisticated enough to be called "life". He pursues these interests through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions. He works with data from the James Webb Space Telescope, is co-investigator on the Juno mission orbiting Jupiter, and is a team member on the JUICE mission enroute to the Jovian moons, and Europa Clipper to be launched in 2024. Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has participated in or chaired a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA. He was the inaugural McDonald Agape Visiting Scholar at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC, in the spring semester of 2023.