Jim Bell is a professor in the School of Earth & Space Exploration at Arizona State University, and is the President of The Planetary Society, the world's largest public space advocacy organization. He is an active astronomer and planetary scientist who has been involved in solar system exploration using the Hubble Space Telescope, Mars rovers, the Voyager missions, and orbiters sent to Mars, the Moon, and several asteroids. Most recently, he is the Principal Investigator of the Mastcam-Z stereo zoom cameras on the NASA Mars 2020 mission's Perseverance rover. His research focuses on the use of remote sensing imaging and spectroscopy to assess the geology, composition, and mineralogy of the surfaces of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Jim is also an author of popular science books related to space exploration, including "Postcards from Mars", "The Interstellar Age", and most recently, "Hubble Legacy". He has received the American Astronomical Society's Carl Sagan Medal for public communication in science, and has a main belt asteroid named after him – 8146 jimbell.