Prof. Ralph Milliken

I’m currently an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Brown University in Providence, RI. I finished my Bachelor’s degree in geology at Indiana University (Bloomington) in ’01 and then headed to Brown University to study under Prof. John Mustard for my M.S. (’03) and Ph.D. (’06). My dissertation focused on remote sensing and reflectance spectroscopy, with a special emphasis on hydrous minerals and mapping the water content of the surface of Mars. I was also fortunate enough get a chance to collaborate with European colleagues on the Mars Express OMEGA instrument. 

After my (first) stay in Rhode Island I headed to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology for a one and a half year postdoctoral position and to work with Prof. John Grotzinger, who is now the Project Scientist for the Mars Curiosity rover. I then continued to work at JPL/Caltech as a Research Scientist until I moved to Notre Dame in 2010. In the summer of 2012 I moved back to Providence to join the faculty at Brown University, which has a fantastic geoscience department and great tradition in planetary science.

When I’m not busy playing with my kids I enjoy spending time outdoors, playing piano, and helping out as part of the science team for the Mars Curiosity rover. More information about my research and teaching interests can be found on the other pages here, but if you have any questions for me or are interested in studying geology or planetary science at Brown then please feel free to e-mail me:

Ralph_MIlliken (at) brown.edu