I'm currently an Astronomer (working for NASA) at Cornell University. I'm living my dream. My research is focused on studying planets around other stars. I live at the Boiceville Cottages near Ithaca with Veronica, my fiancee (she is a writer, poet, life-couch, activist, and karaoke-lover). I love photography, traveling (50 US states, 57 countries, 6 continents), dancing, theatre, volunteering, classical music performances, biking, and movies. I'm a nerd, vegetarian, feminist, socialist, socially aware, and a huge environmental activist. I love new adventures and meeting new people. My life motto is, "The journey is the destination." I'm originally from a small town in rural Colorado. Since high school, I lived in Tucson, Arizona (attended/worked at the University of Arizona) for 6 years, Charlottesville, Virginia for 5 years (PhD at University of Virginia), 2 years in Orleans, France, and now living in Ithaca, New York. I started a project called 'Humans of this Pale Blue Dot'. I'm collecting stories from people I meet along my past and future travels. I'm also collecting stories from people I've only met online. I'd love for you to be part of this project :) I love quotes! "Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful its ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful." LR Knost Personal Social Media: Instagram: jaketurnerphoto Twitter: @Astro_journey Pale Blue Dot: Instagram: humans_of_pbd Website: linktr.ee/humansofthispalebluedot