Ngoc Tuan Truong

Dr. Ngoc Truong is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Planetary Systems Laboratory (Chief: Dr. Kathleen E Mandt) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Center for Space Sciences and Technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University under the mentorship of JPL Chief Scientist Dr. Jonathan Lunine, and subsequently held a postdoctoral position at the Southwest Research Institute, where he collaborated with Dr. Christopher Glein and contributed to the Europa Clipper mission as part of the MASPEX mass spectrometer team.

As a planetary scientist, Dr. Truong studies how planets and moons form, evolve, and become habitable —connecting chemistry in the early Solar System to the potential for life on ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus. He seeks to understand the origins and long-term evolution of planetary systems by tracing how their chemical and isotopic signatures are recorded in the present-day compositions of diverse worlds—ranging from primordial objects like Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids, and comets to the atmospheres of giant planets and the subsurface oceans of their icy satellites, as well as relic ocean worlds such as Mars and Venus. One of Dr. Truong’s recent studies tackles the long-standing solar abundance discrepancy problem by proposing a new solar elemental dataset, integrating cosmochemical data from CI chondrites, Ryugu-returned samples, Kuiper Belt objects, and solar data from solar neutrino and solar wind measurements. This revised picture of the Sun’s composition informs how we model the volatile budgets and formation environments of giant planets and their satellites.

Building on this foundation, Dr. Truong also investigates the conditions that shape the potential habitability of icy moons. His recent work places new constraints on the pH and geochemical evolution of Enceladus’s ocean and explores how liquid water radiolysis driven by radioactive active elements decay could provide chemical energy to sustain life on Europa—even in the absence of active water-rock interaction. His research also extends beyond the Solar System to interstellar dust and sub-Neptune exoplanets. This broad perspective informs the search for potentially habitable environments both within our Solar System and beyond.

While pursuing many of these questions through theoretical modeling, Dr. Truong places strong emphasis on the synergy between theory and observation. His work intergrates a wide range of observations, including data from spacecraft missions (New Horizons, Rosetta, Hayabusa-2, Cassini, Galileo, Juno, JWST, Genesis), meteoritic and astronomical data. Currently, he actively contributes to planetary exploration as an affiliate member of Juno’s Origins Working Group and the Europa Clipper mission.

Ph.D. Geological/Planetary Science, Cornell University (2017-2023)

B.S. Space Science, University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (2013-2016)

Reviewer for Nature Communication, Science Advances, PNAS.

Panelist, NASA’s ROSES review panel, 2024.

Mentor in Europa Clipper’s Here to Observe program: helping underrepresented college students gaining

their first exposure to spacecraft missions, 2024-2025.

SwRI Proposal Red Team Reviewer, 2023, 2024.

Organizer for SwRI’s Space Science Division seminar and Journal Club, 2023-2025.

Scientific Organizing Committee for the 55th DPS/EPSC meeting, San Antonio, 2023; Texas Area Planetary Science meeting, 2023, 2024.

Co-host Planetary Lunch Seminar, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, 2020-2023.

Participant in the Diversity and Climate Committee, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University,

2019-2022.

Convened Planetary Geology session: 21st Earth and Atmospheric Science Graduate Symposium, Cornell

University, January 22, 2018.

PI, Europa Clipper: Inspiring Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists, awarded by Jet Propulsion

Laboratory, ”Water radiolysis may supply oxidants in the ocean of icy worlds”, Total Budget: $29,347,

Jun - Aug 2024.

Travel Grant awarded by Univ. of California, Santa Cruz to Other Worlds Laboratory workshop, $1500,

Jul 2024.

Travel Grant awarded by Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the Uranus Flagship workshop, $2500, Jul 2023.

Carl Sagan Institute Travel Grant & Graduate School Conference Travel Grant, $1000, Dec. 2018, 2021.

Travel Grant awared by NASA’s OPAG - Outer Planet Assessment Group’s Spring meeting, $1500,

Apr 2019.

Odon Vallet Fellowship for Excellent Undergraduate, $1000, Academic Year 2015-2016.

Cornell SmallSat Summer School: Deputy Project Scientist for HADES (H1 Absorption

in the Dark agES) Pioneer mission concept, 2021.