School of Earth and Space Exploration

School of Earth and Space Exploration is an academic division at Arizona State University focused on interdisciplinary study of planetary science, astronomy, geoscience, and astrobiology. The unit integrates faculty from departments and programs associated with planetary missions, observational astronomy, field geology, and computational modeling. It hosts researchers and students who collaborate with national laboratories, space agencies, observatories, and museums.

History

The school was created within Arizona State University amid initiatives involving Biosphere 2, Mars Surveyor Program, and collaborations with NASA centers such as Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, and Ames Research Center. Early organizational efforts drew on partnerships with School of Earth Sciences programs, leveraging connections to International Space Station research and legacy projects like Viking mission studies and Phoenix. Leadership changes involved figures who had prior roles at institutions including California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, and University of California, Berkeley. The school’s formation paralleled national initiatives such as the Decadal Survey priorities and benefited from grants from organizations like the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Simons Foundation. Its early years featured agreements with museums and observatories such as Petrified Forest National Park, Kitt Peak National Observatory, and Lowell Observatory.

Academic Programs

Degree offerings span undergraduate and graduate programs in fields connected to planetary and Earth studies. Undergraduate tracks interface with programs at School of Sustainability, School of Earth and Space Exploration-adjacent majors, and professional organizations like American Geophysical Union and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Graduate programs include doctoral training aligned with projects from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, European Space Agency, and mission teams that worked on Cassini–Huygens, New Horizons, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Courses frequently reference instruments and missions such as Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Magellan, and analysis techniques developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Interdisciplinary minors enable joint study with School of Arts, Media and Engineering, W. P. Carey School of Business, and programs tied to Arizona Geological Survey and Sonoran Desert Museum.

Research and Facilities

Research spans planetary geology, meteoritics, heliophysics, observational astronomy, and computational geoscience, leveraging facilities and consortia associated with Arizona State University networks and external partners like Large Synoptic Survey Telescope collaborations and Mount Graham International Observatory. On-campus laboratories include clean rooms for instrument development, isotopic facilities with connections to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and planetary analog field sites modeled after terrain from Death Valley National Park and Atacama Desert. Observatory access links to facilities such as Subaru Telescope, Keck Observatory, Palomar Observatory, and radio arrays used by teams involved with Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter Array. The school participates in mission science for probes like MESSENGER, OSIRIS-REx, and Mars 2020 and collaborates with instrument teams from Southwest Research Institute and Planetary Science Institute. Computational resources include high-performance clusters modeled after systems used at National Center for Supercomputing Applications and data archives interoperable with NASA Planetary Data System.

Faculty and Notable Alumni

Faculty encompass scholars with prior affiliations including Caltech, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, and Max Planck Society institutes. Research leads have served on committees for National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, International Astronomical Union, and advisory boards for missions such as Europa Clipper and Parker Solar Probe. Alumni have taken roles at organizations like NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, European Space Agency, Blue Origin, SpaceX, Smithsonian Institution, United States Geological Survey, and academic posts at University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, and University of Tokyo. Notable alumni have contributed to discoveries reported in journals like Science (journal), Nature (journal), and The Astrophysical Journal. Faculty awards include fellowships from MacArthur Fellows Program, Guggenheim Fellowship, Packard Foundation, and prizes such as the James Craig Watson Medal and recognitions from the American Astronomical Society.

Outreach and Public Engagement

The school maintains public engagement through exhibits, planetarium programs, K–12 partnerships, and citizen science projects that connect with initiatives like Zooniverse, SETI Institute collaborations, and local institutions including Arizona Science Center and Heard Museum. It runs lecture series featuring speakers from Smithsonian Institution, Royal Astronomical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science and hosts workshops aligned with outreach programs from NASA Science Mission Directorate and National Park Service educational efforts. Community programs involve amateur astronomy groups tied to Astronomical Society of the Pacific and internships with museums such as Petrified Forest National Park and American Museum of Natural History.

Category:Arizona State University