Jordan Bimm is Assistant Instructional Professor of Science Communication and Public Discourse in the Parrhesia Program. Originally from Toronto, Canada, he is a historian of science focused on U.S. space exploration who specializes in space medicine and astrobiology. His work investigates big questions like Who should go to space? and What happens if we discover extraterrestrial life? 

His research has been published in academic journals Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (HSNS) and Social Studies of Science (SSS) and popularized in The New York Times, Scientific American, and The Atlantic. His forthcoming book, Anticipating the Astronaut, examines the surprising history of pre-NASA space medicine test-subjects contributing to early visions of an ideal spacefaring body. His current project, Putting Mars in a Jar, recovers the forgotten history of the U.S. Air Force’s early astrobiology research in the 1950s, which included the first life-on-Mars laboratory simulations. 

His work has won the Sacknoff Prize for Space History, the Adams Center Prize for Cold War History, the History of Science Society’s NASA Fellowship, a Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and the David Edge Prize for Social Studies of Science. 

At the University of Chicago, he teaches courses on science communication as well as the history of science and space exploration. He also directs a space science communication research unit called Capsule Communicator which focuses on issues surrounding detections of biosignatures and technosignatures. 

In 2024 he served as co-lead organizer for the NASA Astrobiology Program supported workshop Communicating Discoveries in the Search for Life in the Universe (CDSLU).