Keivan G. Stassun, Ph.D. is the Stevenson Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Frist Center for Autism & Innovation at Vanderbilt University, with secondary appointments in Computer Science and Management. A leader in NASA’s UVEX and AXIS missions and former co-investigator for TESS, he chairs the Sloan Digital Sky Survey executive committee and serves on the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board. An elected Fellow of multiple scientific societies and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, he has authored over 600 papers on stars and exoplanets and has received honors including the NSF CAREER Award, HHMI Professor Award, Ford Foundation Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship (2024), and the National Medal of Science (2025). From 2004 to 2016, Stassun founded and led the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program, one of the nation’s top producers of PhDs for underrepresented groups in the physical sciences, training over 50 PhD students and postdocs from diverse backgrounds. Since 2017, he has led the Frist Center for Autism & Innovation, pioneering workforce development for autistic and neurodiverse scientists and engineers, and awarding more PhDs to autistic scholars than any other program. His mentoring and diversity leadership have earned national recognition, including the APS Nicholson Medal, AAAS Mentor of the Year, and the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring.