Geodynamics Branch presentations at the 35th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference included contributions from a number of students who worked with mentors at GSFC, either as summer interns or through senior thesis or other student programs. Students making presentations at LPSC this year are described at the right. The three principle mentors for these students were Susan Sakimoto, Jim Roark and Herb Frey (above).
Christina Masuoka is a senior at Pallotti High School. She worked with Jim Roark to introduce significant new capability and improvements to the GRIDVIEW analysis program used by students and professionals alike to study MOLA topography. She will attend the University of Maryland next Fall.
Josh Stern is a senior at Montgomery Blair High School. Last summer he worked with Herb Frey in studying various different age indicators of water in the near surface of Mars (hydrogen, gullies, rampart craters). His paper won semi-finalist status in the Intel Science Talent Search. He will attend Brown University in the Fall.
Erin L. Frey is a senior at South River High School. For the last two years she worked with Susan Sakimoto on determining depth at which gullies form on Mars, and more recently on the volumes of water needed to form gullies. She was also a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. She will attend Harvard College next Fall.
Serena Weren is a senior at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. She is working with Susan Sakimoto on a senior thesis studying small volcanic cones on Mars and comparing them with analog structures from the Eastern Snake River Plain in Idaho.
Scott Mest is a graduate student from the University of Pittsburg in residence at the Geodynamics Branch. His thesis research involves studies of fluvial degradation of highland surfaces and implications for the erosional history and climate of Mars. He expects to finish his PhD this Spring and will continue as an NRC post-doc at Goddard in the Fall.
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Responsible NASA official: Dr. Herbert Frey