Neil Farber, MD, a Docent and Docent Training Coordinator at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, has recently been selected as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.

The Solar System Ambassadors Program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers information and excitement about real missions that explore our solar system. Volunteer ambassadors in communities throughout the country are selected by JPL based on their backgrounds and on their plans for public outreach activities. However, the opinions of Ambassadors are not necessarily those of NASA or JPL. Further information about the Solar System Ambassadors Program is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador.

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

Dr. Farber practiced medicine for 40 years, teaching, researching and providing patient care in medical schools initially on the East Coast, and more recently in San Diego. He retired from medicine 3 years ago, at which time he joined the Museum a docent. Dr. Farber decided to apply to become a Solar System Ambassador in September of 2022. The application process is intensive, with a lengthy application, which asks the applicant about his or her reason for wanting to become an SSA, his or her interest in space, experience in teaching specifically about space, and why we should continue to explore space. They also require five references. NASA/JPL provides both training and materials to all of its selected Solar System Ambassadors.

Dr. Farber has the ability to give lectures, classroom exercises, and demonstrations about different topics of space exploration, including NASA’s missions to the Moon; Mars; the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and their moons; asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets such as Pluto; and NASA’s ongoing search for life elsewhere in the Universe.

All activities of an SSA are sponsored by NASA and are therefore free to the public.

An article about Dr. Farber recently appeared in local sections of the San Diego Union-Tribune: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/news/story/2023-03-08/solar-ambassador