KECK INSTITUTE FOR SPACE STUDIES

     

John Lathrop

John Lathrop

Grad student in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science

Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland

Date of this Interview: June 15, 2022


What do you research?

Motion planning for aerial and space robots.

Why does space inspire you?

I’m so excited by how much there is there to discover and explore, and I love that my research becomes part of that.

If you could instantly travel to any point in the universe, where would you choose to go?

Onto a planet in the galactic core, where the night skies would be bursting full of nearby stars and nebula.

Where can you be found when you’re not conducting research?

Spending my time outside hiking or running!

What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?

Ender’s Game


Image of the beach shore and some equipment

Collecting thermal images to build a dataset for robotic motion planning, and an excuse to head to the beach!