Professor, Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration
Research Group
Active Research Areas:
- Surface Mineralogy and Weathering History of Mars
- Surface Composition and Mineralogy of the Moon
- Geologic Processes on the Surfaces of Terrestrial Planets, Icy Moons, and Asteroids
- Laboratory Spectroscopic and Compositional Studies of Rocks and Minerals
- Spacecraft Instrument Development, Calibration, and Image/Data Processing
Students, Postdocs, and Research Staff Members:
| Doctoral Students | Year | Thesis Topic/Research Area | Current Affiliation |
| Danika Wellington | 2018* | TBD | ASU/SESE |
| Jason Lai | 2018* | TBD | ASU/SESE |
| Nathan Williams | 2017* | Lunar surface tectonics and Mars surface composition/mineralogy | ASU/SESE |
| Kristen Bennett | 2017* | Mars surface mineralogy and lunar pyroclastic deposits | ASU/SESE |
| Melissa Bunte | 2013* | Investigating geologic processes on icy satellites and small bodies and developing algorithms for automated science analysis onboard spacecraft | ASU/SESE |
| Ole Gustafson | 2013* | Research on LRO/LROC Investigation of Pyroclastic Volcanism on the Moon | Cornell |
| Ryan Anderson | 2011 | Thesis: "Lasers and Landing Sites: The Geomorphology, Stratigraphy, and Composition of Mars." Research on MSL Landing site assessment and laboratory calibration of LIBS spectra. Flight operations work as a MER Pancam Payload Downlink Lead. | USGS/Flagstaff |
| Melissa Rice | 2011 | Thesis: "Annals of a Former World: The Remnants of Water at Gusev Crater and Eberswalde Crater, Mars." Research on Silica- and Sulfur-rich soils and alteration at the Spirit rover landing site and the Geology of Eberswalde crater. Flight operations work as a MER Pancam Payload Downlink Lead. | Caltech |
| Briony Horgan | 2010 | Thesis: "Wind, Water, and the Sands of Mars." Researched the mineralogy, morphology, and weathering of Martian N. polar terrains. | ASU/SESE |
| Jason Soderblom | 2007 | Thesis: "Properties of Martian Soils, Rocks, and Atmospheric Dust Derived from Analysis of Hubble Space Telescope and Mars Exploration Rover Data." Flight operations work as a MER Pancam Payload Downlink Lead. | MIT |
| Tim McConnochie | 2007 | Thesis: "Observations of the Martian Atmosphere: THEMIS-VIS Calibration, Mesopheric Clouds, and the Polar Vortex." Flight operations work on calibration of Mars Odyssey THEMIS instrument. | NASA/GSFC |
| Eldar Noe Dobrea | 2004 | Thesis: "Spectroscopic Searches for Water-Alteration Products on Mars." Research on the spectroscopy, mineralogy, and geology of Mars using HST and Mars orbital data sets. Flight operations work as a MER Pancam Payload Downlink Lead. | PSI |
*Expected Date of Graduation
| Postdocs | Year* | Research Area | Current Affiliation |
| Lauren Edgar | 2015 | Analysis of Martian Geomorphology and Stratigraphy | ASU/SESE Exploration Postdoctoral Fellow |
| Kjartan Kinch | 2006 | Analysis of Martian dust optical and radiative properties | Copenhagen University |
| Joe Harrington | 2003 | Development of CONTOUR spectrometer calibration and analyis routines | University of Central Florida |
| Patrick Martin | 1998 | Analysis of NEAR/NIS infrared spectra of Eros, and VIS-NIR spectra of Mars | European Space Astronomy Centre |
| David Klassen | 1997 | Acquisition and analysis of IRTF near-IR spectral data of Mars | Rowan University |
*Last year in group, if multiple years
| Research Staff | Year* | Research Area | Current Affiliation |
|
Austin Godber |
2012 |
Systems Administrator and MSL/Mastcam data reduction, calibration, and mosaicking |
ASU/SESE |
|
Jonathan Joseph |
2012 |
Lead Programmer for MER/Pancam data reduction, calibration, and mosaicking |
Cornell |
|
Jon Proton |
2012 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead |
Cornell |
|
Emily Dean |
2012 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead |
Cornell |
|
Elaina McCartney |
2011 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead |
MSSS |
|
Dale Theiling |
2010 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead |
CU/LASP |
|
Chase Million |
2007 |
Analysis of Mars Odyssey/THEMIS and MRO/CTX and MARCI data sets |
GALEX Science Center/Caltech |
|
Dmitry Savransky |
2006 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead, Payload Downlink Lead, database dev. |
U.C./Berkeley |
|
Heather Arneson |
2005 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead, Payload Downlink Lead, downlink proc. |
NASA/Ames |
|
Miles Johnson |
2005 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead, Payload Downlink Lead, database dev. |
Graduate Student, U. Illinois |
|
Min Hubbard |
2005 |
Analysis of HST and ISO data; downlink processing of MER/Pancam images |
GALEX Science Center/Caltech |
|
Jascha Sohl-Dickstein |
2005 |
MER/Pancam Payload Uplink Lead, Payload Downlink Lead, database dev. |
Stanford |
*Last year in group, if multiple years
| Undergrads | Year* | Research Topic | Last Known Affiliation |
|
Nathan Williams ('12) |
2009 |
Worked on LRO tectonics targeting and Apollo Pan/Metric image analysis |
ASU Graduate Student |
|
Shianne Beer ('08) |
2008 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Sarah Morrison ('10) |
2008 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Cornell |
|
Lucy Ooi ('09) |
2008 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
James Teague ('09) |
2008 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Ashlee Wilkins ('10) |
2009 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Cornell |
|
Nicholas Wirth ('10) |
2008 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Aaron Rubin ('08) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Janet Vertesi (Ph.D., '08) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Postdoc, UC Irvine |
|
Graham Anderson ('07) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Lisa Grossman ('08) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Science Journalist, New Scientist |
|
Diego Saenz ('08) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Derek Schaeffer ('07) |
2007 |
Helped to develop data reduction and processing pipelines for the MRO/MARCI and MRO/CTX instruments; Winner of the Shelley Prize for outstanding undergraduate research in Astronomy in 2007 |
Graduate Student, UCLA |
|
Alex Shapero ('06) |
2006 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
J.R. Skok ('07) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Graduate Student, Brown |
|
Tom Ternquist ('08) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
William Versfelt ('07) |
2007 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Ben Holmes ('06) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Chase Million ('06) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
GALEX Science Center/Caltech |
|
Adam Fischman ('06) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Alissa Friedman ('05) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Alex Hayes ('03) |
2005 |
Worked on MER/Pancam and Mini-TES stereo processing pipeline |
Graduate Student, Caltech |
|
Ben Herbert ('05) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Kelley Hess ('05) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Graduate Student, U. Wisconsin |
|
Kristen Frazier ('07) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Peter Meakin ('07) |
2005 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Dmitry Savransky ('04) |
2004 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Alex Shih ('05) |
2004 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
|
|
Stephanie Gil ('06) |
2004 |
Worked as a member of the student MER/Pancam Calibration staff |
Graduate Student, MIT |
|
Mike Shafer ('04) |
2003 |
Worked on Mars Odyssey/THEMIS computer system and database |
|
|
Ben Stiglitz ('06) |
2003 |
Worked on data processing software for Mars Odyssey/THEMIS-VIS analysis |
|
|
Salman Arif ('04) |
2003 |
Worked on testing of MER/Pancam data compression software |
|
|
Julia Sohnen ('04) |
2003 |
Worked on MER operations planning |
|
|
Yong Shin ('04) |
2003 |
Analyzed Pancam multispectral filter calibration measurements |
|
|
Matt Siegler ('03) |
2003 |
Analyzed MER/Pancam compression algorithms and performance |
Graduate Student, UCLA |
|
Joshua Neubert ('03) |
2003 |
Analyzed HST multispectral images of Mars |
|
|
Christopher Dodd ('01) |
2002 |
Worked on the analysis of NEAR/NIS imaging spectroscopy data |
|
|
Jason Neuswanger ('02) |
2001 |
Worked on the development of a new Department of Astronomy web site |
|
|
Rick Clinite ('03) |
2001 |
Worked on the calibration and analysis of NEAR/NIS data |
|
|
David Dror ('02) |
2001 |
Worked on calibration and analysis of ISO/SWS Mars and Deimos data |
|
|
Andrew Cunningham |
2000 |
REU, SUNY/Geneseo: Worked on Pancam mosaic software |
|
|
Taqui Raza |
2000 |
Univ. Buffalo summer intern: Worked on HST and IRTF data organization |
|
|
Scott Southard ('99) |
2000 |
Worked on HST data analysis and near-IR spectral analysis software |
|
|
Ben Cichy ('00) |
1999 |
Worked on analysis of HST imaging dataset, mapping routines |
|
|
Jascha Sohl-Dickstein ('01) |
1999 |
Worked on development of Astro 101/102 lab web pages and HST mapping |
Graduate Student, UC Berkeley |
|
Tim Glotch |
2000 |
SpaceGrant intern, Colgate U.: Worked on analysis of HST spectroscopic data |
Professor, SUNY/Stony Brook |
|
Patrick Spann ('02) |
1999 |
Worked on design and calibration of 2001 APEX/Pancam instrument |
|
|
Jennifer Ward |
1999 |
SpaceGrant intern, Colgate U.: Worked on Analysis of Palomar asteroid data |
NASA/Ames Research Center |
|
Elizabeth Hays ('99) |
1999 |
Worked on archiving and organization of NEAR preflight calibration data |
|
|
Richard Zentko ('99) |
1998 |
Worked on image processing tools for IRTF Mars telescopic data |
|
|
Robert Comstock |
1998 |
REU, Central Washington U.: Worked on Analysis of HST near-IR data |
|
*Last year in group, if multiple years
