Keivan Stassun holds the position of director at the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-intensive Astrophysics (VIDA) and serves as a professor of Physics & Astronomy. He also acts as the co-investigator for NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and has provided expert testimony to the US House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. Stassun has been honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Engineering Mentoring and serves as the director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation.