Jason Rhodes

Dr. Jason Rhodes, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, is an astrophysicist studying the dark sector of the Universe at NASA’s JPL. After getting a BS in Physics from Harvey Mudd College, he headed east for a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton and a stint as a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. In 2003, he moved to Caltech and JPL to develop space telescopes to study the dark matter and dark energy that make up 95% of the Universe. Jason is an expert in weak gravitational lensing, whereby foreground dark matter distorts the apparent shapes of background galaxies. He is the US lead for the European Space Agency’s Euclid dark energy mission and a Deputy Project Scientist on NASA’s WFIRST mission. He is also leading the development of a NASA effort to incentivize powered airships as a science platform. An avid runner, Jason has an NCAA title (800 meters), a Master’s national title (800 meters), and a Master’s World Record (4x800 meter relay) to his name.