[3] He was working at NASA Ames when he was inspired to form Cosmos Education in 1999 after getting a grant from the Earth and Space Foundation to tour African schools to talk about how education relates to space research.

[6] He earned a master's degree at Stanford University in mechanical engineering while also working as a public policy research associate at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).

[6][7] He chose the question of whether Europa's putative ocean could harbor life as his Geological & Environmental Sciences PhD dissertation topic, under the direction of Christopher Chyba,[7] earning the doctorate in 2007.

[6] While a PhD student, he was chosen by James Cameron to take marine biology samples from hydrothermal vents in subsea expeditions to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise.

[8] At a 2014 NASA panel discussion, Hand predicted that extraterrestrial life would be found within 20 years.