Planetary scientist Steven W. Squyres has played a pioneering role in numerous explorations of objects in our solar system and was the principal investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover Project. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1981, and after five years at NASA's Ames Research Center became a faculty member at Cornell in 1986. In September 2019, he stepped down from his position as James A. Weeks Professor of physical sciences to join the spaceflight company Blue Origin. His planetary exploration missions include Voyager, Magellan, NEAR, Cassini, Mars Express, MRO, Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Science Laboratory. Squyres led the most recent National Research Council Planetary Decadal Survey and served as Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.