James Wray, PhD

2006 Hertz Fellow
Visit website

James Wray is a Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Wray’s research continues to focus on characterizing habitable worlds beyond Earth. He is Co-Investigator on a camera selected for flight on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter under development by ESA and NASA for launch in 2016. James is an enthusiast of human spaceflight and of efforts to expand privately funded science, exploration, and tourism in space.

"Working on diverse projects and traveling around the world to attend conferences would likely have been impossible without the Hertz Fellowship, and I continue to be most grateful to the foundation for its support."
– James Wray

Graduate Studies

Cornell University
Astronomy, Planetary Science
High-Resolution Studies of Aqueous Environments on Ancient Mars

Undergraduate Studies

Princeton University

Related News

Oct 20, 2015
James Wray's work involving NASA and two of his graduate students Luju Ojha and Mary Beth Wilhelm, lead to recently discovering flowing water on the surface of Mars. Wray’s team analyzed strange dark streaks that formed during warm seasons, trickling down the planet’s hills before disappearing in colder seasons, using hardware aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Wray is a Hertz Fellow and assistant professor at Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.