Dr. Essam Heggy is a Research Scientist in the Radar Science Group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Visiting Associate in Geology at the California Institute of Technology.

Heggy obtained his Ph.D. in astronomy and planetary science in 2002 with distinguished honors from the Paris VI University in France. His main science interests in space and planetary geophysics covers Mars, the Moon, icy satellites and Near Earth Objects. His research involves probing structural, hydrological and volcanic elements in terrestrial and planetary environments using different types of radar imaging and sounding techniques as well as measuring the electromagnetic properties of rocks in the radar frequency range. His research activities span from laboratory electromagnetic characterization of planetary analog materials, Radar sounding of aquifers in hyper-arid environments, GPR surveys in volcanic and ice-rich environments, FDTD numerical simulations of wave propagation and terrestrial and planetary radars data analysis.

He is currently a member of the science team of the MARSIS instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter (2003-present), the Mini-SAR experiment aboard Chandrayaan-1, the Mini-RF experiment on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2008-present), the CONSERT radar experiment on board the Rosetta mission (2004-2015) and the RIME experiment Onboard JUICE mission for Jupiter Icy Satellites . Heggy is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Earth Venture Mission Concept OASIS. He is also a contributing scientist to several proposed planetary and terrestrial radar imaging and sounding experiments. Heggy served as a panel member for several NASA programs including the Planetary Instrument Definition and Development program, Planetary Geology and Geophysics program, Mars Data Analysis program, Astrobiology program and the Educational and Public Outreach program. He also edited a special JGR-planets volume on terrestrial and planetary radars. He is on the editing board of Geosciences and National Geography and co-chaired several sessions in American Geophysical Union and other international meetings on planetary radars.

Heggy also taught academic classes and mentored several postdocs and graduated students in UCLA, Caltech, Cambridge University, Paris VI & Paris VII universities, Institut de Physique du Globe, Ecole Normale Superieure, University of Houston, Trento University and Colombia University.