Remarks at the 2026 Sagan Summer Workshop

July 20, 2026

Good morning!

On behalf of the Caltech and JPL community, together with our partners at NASA, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to this Sagan Summer Workshop. 

You are embarking on an exciting week of learning and fellowship, devoted to the next chapter of our quest to explore worlds beyond our own, using the soon-to-be-launched Roman Space Telescope.

And, I'm confident this experience will be a rewarding one, because happen to have been in your position a few years –OK, a couple of decades! –ago.

As a graduate student, I attended what was then called the Michelson Summer School, a predecessor to these Sagan Summer Workshops. There is proof my participation –in the form of a group photo –with a younger version of me standing in the back row. Looking at it gives me a sense of déjà vu, but also reminds me just how dramatically our quest has progressed since then.

It's easy to forget now, but when we gathered at Caltech in the summer of 1999, exoplanet science was very much in its infancy. We knew of only a handful of planets orbiting other stars. The first confirmed observation of a transiting exoplanet had yet to be announced. (That would come a few months later.)

But I remember the palpable sense that we were standing on the threshold of a new era, the full potential of which we couldn't yet grasp.

It's remarkable how rapidly our horizons have expanded.

In little over three decades, the discovery and characterization of exoplanets has exploded into one of the greatest scientific successes of our time.

Not only are we finding alien worlds by the thousands, but we're now able to do ‘remote sensing' across hundreds of light-years to probe their atmospheres in astonishing detail. It's not an exaggeration to say that, in some ways, this moment in history is comparable to when Galileo turned his telescope to the heavens 400 years ago, forever changing humanity's understanding of the universe. The exoplanet findings of the past 30 years are providing us with a truer measure of our own place in the cosmos. 

Now, we're preparing to widen the aperture again.

The imminent launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope promises another tremendous leap forward, revealing thousands of worlds previously hidden from view and further transforming our understanding of the incredible range of planets and planetary systems across the galaxy.

We are, in a very real sense, about to learn how much more there is to see.

I couldn't imagine a more fitting frame for this gathering than two pioneers whose work helped open this frontier.

Carl Sagan inspired generations of people–myself included–to appreciate that the cosmos was not a distant or abstract concept, but something we are a part of. He made the universe feel both vast and intimate and showed millions of people that scientific inquiry gives meaning to our own curiosity and wonder.

Nancy Grace Roman brought clarity and discipline to the essential work of turning aspiration into reality. As "the mother of Hubble", she helped build the institutional and technological foundations that made space based astronomy possible for those who came after her. 

You are inheritors of both their legacies. 

You are also part of the much older human tradition of turning to the night sky and asking what else might be out there, and what it might mean for us. 

As you move through the week, I hope you hold on to that grander perspective. Remember that long before breakthroughs appear in journals or headlines, they begin in rooms like the one you're in now, in conversations among colleagues, in the shared excitement over a new question, and the collective effort to advance the quest.

We are living in an extraordinary era of discovery. And through your participation here, you are helping to shape it. 

I hope you leave feeling even more connected to this unfolding revolution and the greater adventure of human discovery it reflects.

Bon voyage, fellow explorers!