Jason Feldman is a member of the engineering staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He is presently the Instrument Engineer for the Sample Analysis at Mars Suite (SAM). He works closely with the SAM PI Paul Mahaffy and his team at Goddard Space Flight Center as the technical link between the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and SAM. As such, he is required to be deeply familiar with both MSL and SAM.

Jason received his B.A. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he worked with Professor Paul Richards on the Millimeter Anisotropy Experiment (MAX). In addition to his key project-the design, fabrication, and implementation of high-speed, radiation-hard serial data communications systems for a high altitude NASA-NSBF balloon-borne telescope-he was responsible for the set-up of a new laboratory and calibration facility, optimization of the analog electronics, and coordination of systems compatibility with collaborators.

Jason joined the California Institute of Technology in 1998 as an assistant engineer with Professor Axel Scherer and then joined JPL in 1999. He invented the Atmospheric Electron X-ray Spectrometer and lead the experimental development of this instrument in collaboration with T. George and J. Z. Wilcox. He has developed new instruments and sensors for in situ planetary exploration, bringing them from the conceptual phase to laboratory research and field operation. He was the cognizant engineer for the Patch Plate dust adhesion experiment, to be flown on the Mars ’03 lander as part of the MECA payload. He served as the mechanical engineer for the Cryobot Active Thermal Probe development project, which is developing a robotic probe to carry out sub-glacial exploration in Antarctica. In addition to his JPL projects, he has worked at the Monterey Bay Aquarium research Institute devloping the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) for autonomous detection of organisms in the ocean.