James B. Garvin served as NASA's Chief Scientist from October 2004 to September 2005 and is known for his foundational work in NASA's Mars explorational programs.

Garvin arrived at the Goddard Space Flight Center since 1984 where he first served as a staff scientist developing remote sensing instrumentation and has been based there or at the nearby NASA headquarters in Washington D.C. since then. His career has spanned disciplines as Earth system science, Mars Exploration, lunar exploration, Venus, asteroids, and the outer planets. He has been a co-investigator on NASA's Mars Observer, Mars Global Surveyor, NEAR-Shoemaker, OSIRIS-REx, Mars Curiosity Rover, Canada's Radarsat, and ESA's Envisat missions.

Garvin is the principal investigator of the DAVINCI+ mission (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging). In 2021, it was selected as one of NASA's next Discovery Program missions, for launch between 2028 and 2030.

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