Cynthia B. Phillips (born 1973)[1] is an American planetary geologist who works for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A focus of her research has been Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, and she is project staff scientist and project science communications lead for the Europa Clipper spacecraft mission.[2] An expert on processing images from space missions to the planets and their moons, and on the geological processes operating within moons,[3] she has studied the effects of asteroid impacts on the surface of Europa,[4] and definitions of non-earth-based life that could apply on places like Europa that are outside the circumstellar habitable zone.[5]

Education and career

Phillips went to Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts, where she grew up. She was an undergraduate at Harvard University, where she studied astronomy, astrophysics, and physics,[2] graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. in 1995.[6] She completed a Ph.D. in planetary science at the University of Arizona in 2000. Her dissertation, Voyager and Galileo SSI Views of Volcanic Resurfacing on Io and the Search for Geologic Activity on Europa, was supervised by Alfred McEwen.[7]

She worked as a researcher at the SETI Institute for 15 years before joining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to work on the Europa Clipper mission.[2]

Books

As well as her research publications, Phillips is a coauthor with Shana Priwer of science popularization books including:

References

  1. ^ Birth year from Library of Congress catalog entry, retrieved 2022-08-14
  2. ^ a b c "Cynthia Phillips: Planetary Geologist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)", NASA Science: Solar System Exploration, NASA, retrieved 2022-08-14
  3. ^ a b "Cynthia Phillips", Meet Our Scientists, SETI Institute, archived from the original on 2015-09-10
  4. ^ Surface of Jupiter's Moon Europa Churned by Small Impacts, NASA, July 12, 2021, retrieved 2022-08-14
  5. ^ Conditt, J. (March 11, 2018), "NASA wants to change the way we think about the habitable zone", Engadget, retrieved 2022-08-14
  6. ^ Biographical sketch (PDF), SETI Institute, 2010, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-10
  7. ^ PTYS/LPL Alumni Directory, University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, retrieved 2022-08-14
  8. ^ a b c d e "Cynthia Phillips", About the author, Simon & Schuster, retrieved 2022-08-14

External links

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