JONATHAN H. JIANG is a former Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. His research spans astrophysics, atmospheric dynamics, climate processes, planetary habitability, and humanity’s long-term future in the cosmos. He currently serves as President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Global Environmental Change section, Member of National Academies of Sciences committee on Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars, and previously served as Editor of Earth and Space Science and Editor-in-Chief of the Earth and Space Science Open Archive, as well as Chairman for the American Meteorological Society (AMS)’s Committee on Atmospheric Chemistry. Dr. Jiang has received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, and is an elected AMS Fellow. He is also the founder and CEO of Beacon in the Cosmos LLC, an initiative dedicated to inspiring the next generation of explorers and advancing global science education. He earned his Ph.D. in atmospheric science from York University in Toronto, Canada, and is the author of Avoiding the Great Filter: Illuminating Pathways to Humanity’s Future in the Cosmos, which explores the scientific, societal, and philosophical challenges and opportunities for humanity’s survival and progress in the universe.