Thomas Orlando is a Regents' Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech and Adjunct Professor in the School of Physics. He served as Chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Associate Dean for Energy Research and Associate Director of the Strategic Energy Institute. He was co-founder and former Director of the Georgia Tech Center for Space Technology and Research (CSTAR) and Principal Investigator of Radiation Effects on Volatile Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces (REVEALS), a NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) at Georgia Tech. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a second GT SSERVI node called the Center for Lunar Exploration and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER). Both REVEALS and CLEVER focus on understanding the lunar environment and the role of the solar wind, meteoroid impacts and space weathering in the formation of volatiles such as water required for the sustained presence of humans on the Moon. REVEALS and CLEVER also focus on developing solar energy based in situ resource utilization strategies on the Moon, as well as the development of novel surfaces and 2D-materials that can be used to monitor and mitigate radiation and dust risks to astronauts as required for the Artemis program.

Orlando's primary research interests span molecular physics, surface chemistry, biophysics, and planetary science. His NASA mission related work involved studies of Jupiter’s moons (i. e. Europa), the Saturnian ring system, Titan and Enceladus as well as Mercury. Currently, he is contributing to data analysis from the PRIME-1 MSOLO instrument that recently landed on the Moon and is working with members of the VIPER instrument teams. He was a Co-I in the NSF/NASA supported GT Center for Chemical Evolution focused on the fundamental chemical processes leading to the formation of RNA and DNA under early Earth conditions. He was also a member of the JPL NASA Astrobiology Institute that investigated Titan as a Pre-Biotic System and the John Hopkins Lunar Science Institute. His Department of Energy supported work focuses on radiation processes which includes the fundamental physics involved in damage of RNA and DNA and the subsequent onset of cancer. Most recent work involves atto-second x-ray pump probe studies and nanoparticle based cancer treatment and risk mitigation efforts. 

He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Atomic and Molecular Physics division. He served as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets, the European Journal of Physics and on many review panels for the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. He is currently serving on an appointed National Academy panel focused on lunar exploration. He was a recent recipient of the Ted Madey award of the American Vacuum (Surface Science) Society for pioneering studies of non-equilibrium surface processes in planetary “surface science” and the J. D. Little award of the Radiation Research Society for his fundamental studies related to DNA damage and cancer.

Thomas Orlando CV