Jon Hamkins

Recognized under Tier 7 — Interplanetary Communications, Jon Hamkins has made significant contributions to deep space communication systems and information theory at JPL. Hamkins's research on channel coding, modulation, and the optimization of communication links for deep space missions has helped push the limits of how much information can be reliably transmitted across the vast distances separating Earth from Mars and beyond. As a Mars colony will depend on high-reliability data links for navigation, operations, scientific return, and crew communication, advances in the coding and modulation schemes that underpin those links are a direct enabler of everything the colony does.