Pierce Jackson

Planets in general, though especially exoplanets, fascinate me. Today it is well understood that planets are abundant throughout our galaxy and likely beyond. The variety of exoplanets have repeatedly challenged our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve, providing context to Earth’s unique place in the universe. The vast amount of data obtained from Kepler, K2, Hubble, Keck, TESS, JWST, and NGRST (WFIRST), provides countless opportunities to uncover the mysteries of exoplanets and forming stellar systems. I wish to make use of this data to characterize exoplanets and better understand their composition, atmospheres, and ultimately, their habitability. One of the reasons exoplanets pique my interest is their application to astrobiology. To assess if a planet could host life requires that we determine its characteristics in great detail: we must determine its relationship with the host star and nearby planetary bodies, the atmospheric composition (if it has one), climate, geological properties, age, and if liquids could be present at its surface. Without constraining these properties, it would be impossible to evaluate if life, simple or complex, could exist there. I believe discovering and understanding the properties of Earth-like planets orbiting within their star’s habitable zone is extremely important for determining whether extraterrestrial life could exist. I also believe that understanding the frequency and types of exoplanets, how they form, migrate, and evolve over time makes this field one of the most exciting within astronomy.

Spaceflight is entering a new golden age and missing out on it would be a masssive miscalculation. Whether robotic exploration such as Curiosity, Perseverance, VIPER, BepiColombo, etc...; the rise of the private space industry with SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Bigelow (to name a few); or the movement towards expanding humans to the Moon and Mars with Starship, Artemis, and Starliner; there are countless opportunities to enter the fray. All of these developments fill me with excitement, determination, and the desire to be able to peer into the future to see where the space industry will be in a few decades. I resolutely believe that exploration and expansion of humans into space is vital - not only because it is human nature to learn and explore (cf. Carl Sagan), but because of the many existential threats to Earth such as climate change, space weather (asteroid impact, solar storms, gamma ray bursts), and growing political unrest. On a lighter note, the technological development associated with spaceflight is known to trickle down to general society and allow for the improvement of living conditions and quality of life of people across the globe which is a reward in and of itself!

• First author publication in the Planetary Science Journal
• Masters thesis accepted
• 2 posters created and presented
• 6+ years of Python Coding experience
• 2+ years of C
• 2+ years of Matlab
• Experience in LaTeX, Linux, Mathematica, Fortran, and apparently some html
• Undergraduate Research in Atomic physics at Auburn University (Dielectronic Recombination)
• Former Auburn University Small Satellite Program Command and Data Handling/Software Team Lead
• Teaching Assistant for Physics I, Orbital Mecanics, and Aerospace Systems
• AU Society of Physics Students President (2019-2020); Vice President (2018-2019)
• VP of Auburn Astronomical Society (Founded Spring 2020)
• Auburn University Outstanding Junior (2018-2019) and Outstanding Senior (2019-2020) in Physics
• Sigma Pi Sigma - National Physics Honor Society Member
• Summer 2018 REU at Auburn University
• Eagle Scout