Brian Day is the Lead for Citizen Science and Community Development at the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). In this role, he coordinates programs with numerous internal and external partnering organizations, focusing on providing opportunities for students and the public to directly participate in NASA science and exploration.
He currently acts as SSERVI’s project manager for NASA’s Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (http://lmmp.nasa.gov), a set of tools designed for mission planning, lunar science, and public outreach. From 2010-2014, Brian served as the Education/Public Outreach Lead for NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission to the Moon, which flew through and studied the Moon’s tenuous atmosphere. From 2007-2010 he served as the E/PO Lead for NASA’s LCROSS lunar impactor mission which discovered deposits of water ice at the Moon’s South Pole. He has also participated in producing the Education/Public Outreach sections for numerous NASA mission proposals. Brian has played key roles in various NASA Mars Analog Field Studies, providing technical support in the field for webcasts and robotic rover tests in extreme environments here on Earth. In 2007, he flew on the Aurigid-MAC mission to record fragments of comet Kiess entering Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Brian is a frequently-requested speaker at local schools and community organizations. As a member of NASA’s Speakers Bureau, he is sent by NASA to give talks on a wide range of NASA missions and research topics.
Brian has worked as an instructor in San Jose State University’s Internet Business Specialist program, and has taught astronomy through the Metropolitan Education District in San Jose and as part of Project Astro. He is very active in the amateur astronomy community and served as the chairman of the Foothill College Observatory for 16 years. Brian earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California Los Angeles, a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from the University of San Francisco, and a Master’s degree in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney.