Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and planetary scientist whose research focuses on theory, computation, and data analysis of exoplanets. Her work led to the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere and has introduced many new ideas to the field of exoplanet characterization. Her space instrumentation group is focusing on "ExoplanetSat," a nanosatellite capable of high-precision pointing for discovering transiting exoplanets. She is a co-investigator on TESS, a NASA Explorer Mission to be launched in 2017, and chairs the NASA Science and Technology Definition Team for a "Probe-class" starshade and telescope system for direct imaging discovery and characterization of Earth analogs. After earning her Ph.D. at Harvard in 1999 and before joining MIT in 2007, Seager spent four years on the senior research staff at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, preceded by three years at the Institute for Advanced Study. She is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, the 2012 recipient of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, and the 2007 recipient of the American Astronomical Society's Helen B. Warner Prize. Sometimes called an "astronomical Indiana Jones," she was also included in Time magazine's 25 Most Influential in Space in 2012. Twitter: @ProfSaraSeager