Amy Barr Mlinar

Amy Barr Mlinar is a planetary scientist and academic leader whose work bridges space science and transformative education. She holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado Boulder and a B.S. in Planetary Science from Caltech.  After postdoctoral work at Washington University in Saint Louis and the Southwest Research Institute, Amy was a faculty member at Brown University and the recipient of a NASA Early Career Fellowship.

Her research focuses on planetary geophysics and computational fluid dynamics. Amy has served on several National Academies committees on planetary protection, strategic exploration, and long-term priorities for space science. She is a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, where she contributes to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

Beyond the lab, Amy served for more than a decade on the Board of Trustees of the Summer Science Program, Inc., eventually becoming the Chief Academic Officer of SSP, where she spearheaded rapid growth in enrollment, expansion into new scientific disciplines, and creation of strategic university partnerships.