Dr. James P. Mastandrea is a Senior Profes­sional Staff member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s Space Explo­ration Sector. He has a BS in Mechani­cal Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, and an MS and PhD in Mate­rials Science & Engineering all from the University of Califor­nia, Berkeley. He has experience in computational materials science, nucleation, growth, and microstructural evolution of materials, and understanding material performance with an emphasis on semiconductors and metals. He also serves on the project management team of a NASA Heliophysics’ study on an Interstellar Probe, a mission concept that would explore our habitable astrosphere and our local interstellar medium.