NASA Film Screening: Cosmic Dawn

Erin Flowers

Astrophysicist and Assistant Director, STEM Education CST

Erin holds a PhD in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University and a BA in Astrophysics from Columbia University. Her research interests include astrobiology, and theoretical and observational (exo)planet characterization and detection. Currently, she studies the atmospheric dynamics and chemistry of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Titan is a moon unlike any other in our solar system, with a robust atmosphere and liquid on its surface, though the liquid is methane and not water. Erin researches how we can improve the realism in large, complex atmospheric models of Titan to both explain current observations of global climate phenomena, and predict ongoing and future conditions.  She is currently a researcher on the upcoming NASA Dragonfly mission that will launch to probe Titan in 2027.

James Tralie '19

NASA

James Tralie '19 is a TV/film producer, animator, and live TV host at NASA. He works at the intersection of science and art to create dreamy, otherworldly scenes, educational explainer videos, documentary productions, and immersive content for all of NASA’s social channels and for television. His most recent productions include the feature-length documentary, To an Asteroid and Back, about the asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, and the TV series, Other Worlds, about the planetary science of the James Webb Space Telescope. He is one of the top digital artists in the world and has exhibited worldwide including in Times Square New York, at Shibuya Crossing in Japan, in Abu Dhabi, Art Basel Miami, and in Montreal, Canada. He is a member of the Television Academy and a winner of multiple Webby Awards. He holds an A.B. in Geosciences, with certificates in French and Environmental Studies from Princeton University. 

Jie Deng

assistant professor of geosciences

ie Deng received his Ph.D. in geophysics from Yale University in 2019. Jie uses atomistic simulations, machine learning, and laboratory experiments to study material properties and key processes underlying the formation and evolution of planetary bodies, including phase transitions, element partitioning, and isotope fractionation. His recent work combines machine learning, and ab initio molecular dynamics to model the melting and crystallization processes of bridgmanite, with application to the magma ocean process and early evolution of terrestrial planets.

Chris Chyba

Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor in International Affairs and professor of astrophysical sciences

Christopher Chyba is professor of astrophysical sciences and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor in International Affairs at Princeton University. As an associate professor of geological sciences at Stanford University before coming to Princeton, he co-directed the Center for International Security and Cooperation and held the Sagan Chair at the SETI Institute. He has been a Marshall Scholar and a MacArthur Fellow.

During President Clinton’s first term, Chyba served on the staffs of the National Security Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, entering as a White House Fellow. He served for a decade as a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on International Security and Arms Control, and on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) from April 2009 through January 2017, on which he co-chaired the working groups on antibiotic resistance and on biodefense. In late 2020 to early 2021, Chyba served on the national security and foreign policy team for the Biden-Harris transition. In January 2023, he joined the national security division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as a special government employee, serving until January 2025.

Chyba's current academic policy-relevant research focuses on possible pathways to nuclear weapons use (for two years, he co-chaired a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on this topic), nonproliferation and strategic arms control, deterrence, and biodefense. His scientific research has ranged across planetary physics and exobiology, including the role of impacts on the origin of life on Earth, the Tunguska atmospheric explosion and planetary defense, radar, seismic, and magnetometer sounding of Europa's ice shell, bioenergetic models for possible ecosystems on Europa, planetary protection, dynamical modeling of the Neptune-Triton system, electromagnetic heating of planetary satellites and exoplanets, and theoretical and experimental work examining electricity generation from Earth's rotation through its own magnetic field.