Mars Exploration: Looking Forward from MER

Mars Exploration: Looking Forward from MER

For more than a decade, NASA’s MER rovers Spirit and Opportunity provided a field geologist’s view of the Martian surface, providing a foundation for continuing in situ exploration of our planetary neighbor.   A member of the MER Science team, Andrew Knoll will discuss scientific highlights from the mission, as well as continuing insights from MER’s descendants, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.   Much has been learned about Mars’ environmental history, but outstanding questions remain, including the question of life.

Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. He received his B.A. in Geology from Lehigh University in 1973 and his Ph.D., also in Geology, from Harvard in 1977. Following five years on the faculty of Oberlin College, Knoll returned to Harvard as Associate Professor of Biology in 1982.  He has been a member of the Harvard faculty ever since, serving as both Professor of Biology and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Professor Knoll’s research focuses on the early evolution of life, Earth’s environmental history, and, especially, the interconnections between the two. For the past decade, he has served on the science team for NASA’s MER mission to Mars.

Professor Knoll’s honors include the Walcott Medal and the Mary Clark Thompson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science (for his 2003 book Life on a Young Planet), the Moore Medal of the Society for Sedimentary Geology, the Paleontological Society Medal, and the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London. Knoll is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Microbiology.