Presented by Dr. Linda Spilker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Linda Spilker is an American planetary scientist who has participated in NASA planetary missions for over 40 years. She is the Cassini Project Scientist and a Co-Investigator on the Composite Infrared Spectrometer team. Her research interests include the evolution and dynamics of Saturn’s rings. Spilker received a B.A. in Physics from the California State University, Fullerton, in 1977 and an M.S. in Physics from the California State University, Los Angeles, in 1983. She obtained a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1992. Spilker joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1977, initially working on the Voyager missions that were launched the same year. She became a Cassini mission scientist in 1990, and since 2010, she has been the Cassini mission Project Scientist, a role in which she has directed the entire team’s scientific investigations.