Rate My Professor Vishnu Reddy

Vishnu Reddy is a Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. He earned his Ph.D. in Earth System Science and Policy from the University of North Dakota in 2009, focusing his dissertation on a mineralogical survey of the near-Earth asteroid population, and holds an M.S. in Space Studies from the same institution. Reddy's career began with a post-doctoral researcher position at Observatório Nacional in Brazil in 2010. From 2010 to 2013, he served as Research Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota, acting as science lead for the framing camera team at the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany on NASA’s Dawn mission to asteroid (4) Vesta. He subsequently worked at the Planetary Science Institute from 2013 to 2016 before joining the University of Arizona in spring 2016 as an assistant professor, advancing to full professor. In addition to his academic role, Reddy directs the Space Safety, Security and Sustainability Center (Space4) and oversees the Biosphere 2 Space Domain Awareness Observatory Complex, managing ground-based optical, infrared, and passive radio frequency space surveillance assets. He led the investigation team for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission from 2015 to 2020, tasked with discovering 90% of near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters to meet the George E. Brown Congressional mandate.

Reddy’s research centers on infrared spectroscopy and remote sensing to characterize asteroids and meteorites, elucidating Solar System formation, impact hazard assessment, mitigation, asteroid-meteorite linkages, and resource utilization. His interests encompass cosmochemistry, planetary astronomy, planetary surfaces, small bodies, space situational awareness, and spectroscopy. He has utilized the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i, since 2005 for spectral characterization of near-Earth objects. Reddy develops networks of optical and RF sensors for orbital debris and cislunar space object characterization in collaboration with the United States Air Force Research Laboratory. Key publications include “Long-term Spectral Monitoring of Active Asteroid (6478) Gault: Implications for the H Chondrite Parent Body” (2025, The Planetary Science Journal), “2023 DZ2 Planetary Defense Campaign” (2024), “Apophis Planetary Defense Campaign” (2022), “Surface Composition of (99942) Apophis” (2018, Astronomical Journal), and “Photometric properties of Ceres from telescopic observations using Dawn Framing Camera color filters” (2015, Icarus). For his contributions to planetary defense, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 1981 EQ28 as (8068) vishnureddy. Reddy is establishing a space material characterization laboratory to study reflectance properties of natural and artificial materials under space-like conditions.