LPL alumnus David Grinspoon (1989) was elected an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in astronomy for 2021. He was recognized as a AAAS Fellow for his distinguished research comparative terrestrial atmospheres with a particular focus on Venus, and for prolific public science communication via books, articles, lectures, and other media. 

Dr. Grinspoon is a Senior Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute. He has served on the science teams of several spacecraft missions and has published numerous papers on the evolution of the atmospheres, planets and potential biology of Earthlike planets. David has written and edited six books, including Lonely Planets the Natural Philosophy of Alien Life, which won a PEN Literary award for nonfiction, and Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future, named a Best Science Book of 2016 by NPR’s Science Friday. His articles have been published in prestigious journals and magazines; his Cosmic Relief column appears regularly in Sky & Telescope Magazine. 

In 2013, Dr. Grinspoon was appointed as the inaugural Chair of Astrobiology at the U.S. Library of Congress where he studied the human impact on Earth systems and organized a public symposium on the Longevity of Human Civilization. Grinspoon has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at four universities and online, given dozens of public lectures about climate change in the Solar System, and collaborated with numerous scholars from the humanities on the ethical, spiritual and political dimensions of space exploration. He has appeared widely on radio and television, including as a frequent guest-host of StarTalk Radio. The American Astronomical Society awarded him the Carl Sagan Medal for Public Communication of Planetary Science. Asteroid 22410 Grinspoon, a main-belt asteroid, is named after him.