Sara Seager
http://www.ciw.edu/seager/

Sara Seager, senior research staff member at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is a recognized expert on the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. She has published many papers on the signatures of extrasolar planets which have been used extensively by observers for experimental ideas and design. Because many of her papers were the first on a subtopic, they have been used as starting points by other atmospheric modelers. Her prediction for sodium in the atmosphere of the hot-Jupiter HD209458b led to the first ever extrasolar planet atmosphere detection by HST in 2001. As a member of the TPF Scientific Working Group, a member of the NAI Carnegie Team, a Co-I participant in a number of studies and proposed missions related to extrasolar planets, and a member of the most recent NASA Origins Roadmap committee, she has a broad range of experience with implementation of astrobiology-related astronomy.