Don Jennings received his BS from Northern Arizona University in 1970 and PhD from The University of Tennessee in 1974. He has worked for NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center since 1976. His area of research is infrared molecular spectroscopy of planets, the Sun, and stars. He studies compositions of the surfaces and atmospheres of solar system objects to try to understand how they formed and evolved. On New Horizons he is a Co-Investigator responsible for the LEISA infrared spectral imager.

Dr. Jennings answers some questions for us:

The Pluto Portal: What interests you about the exploration of Pluto?
Dr. Jennings: Visiting Pluto, Charon and a Kuiper Belt object will take man-made sensors to the farthest reaches of the solar system, to study bodies that may have a different formation history from any of the planets and moons we have gone to before. We will put the finishing touches on man's reconnaissance of Earth's siblings.

The Pluto Portal: What do you think the most interesting discovery in space has been, why?
Dr. Jennings: The most exciting discovery in the solar system during the past decade has been the identification of a whole new class of objects beyond Neptune, and the realization that Pluto is one of them!

The Pluto Portal: What kind of discoveries do you think are waiting to be made in the Kuiper Belt?
Dr. Jennings: A study of the compositions of objects in the Kuiper Belt will tell us much more than we now know about the original material and the process that formed the Solar System.