James W. Head

James W. Head is an American planetary geologist, born in 1941, the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, who began his career at Bellcomm analyzing Apollo program lunar landing sites and training astronauts in geological fieldwork. He has published more than 750 scientific papers advancing understanding of the geological history of the Moon along with Mars, Venus, Mercury and icy moons, supervised nearly forty doctoral students, and participated in international missions including NASA own Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the European Space Agency own Mars Express and NASA own MESSENGER mission to Mercury. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received the G.K. Gilbert Award in 2002, the Runcorn-Florensky Medal in 2010 and the Norman L. Bowen Award in 2013. He received the Penrose Medal in 2015.