David Morrison

Born on June 26, 1940, in Danville, Illinois, David Morrison is an American astronomer whose career has focused on planetary science, astrobiology, and the search for life beyond Earth. He studied at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1969, where Carl Sagan was his thesis advisor.

Morrison taught at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and later joined NASA Ames Research Center, where he served in several senior leadership roles. His research and mission work included major contributions to the study of Venus, Neptune, Pluto, Io, and the asteroid population, and he took part in missions such as Mariner, Voyager, and Galileo.

He is especially well known for helping establish astrobiology as a modern scientific field and for explaining impact hazards from asteroids and comets to the public. Beyond his research, he has written numerous books and papers and became widely recognized through outreach efforts such as NASA's "Ask an Astrobiologist."