CPSH Seminar Series: Dr. Elizabeth Rampe, NASA Johnson Space Center
March 4, 2026
March 9, 2026 at 1:00pm CT
Location: Classroom 15.216B, Physics, Math and Astronomy Bldg.
UT Austin, Department of Astronomy
2515 Speedway, Stop C1400
Austin, Texas 78712-1205
Online: To join online contact Brandon Jones.
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Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth Rampe, Planetary Scientist, NASA Johnson Space Center
Host: Lucia Bellino
Title: Minerals on Mars: Reconstructing Past Environments and Evaluating Habitability
Abstract: The martian surface today is cold and dry, but ancient river channels and lake deposits indicate liquid water was common ~3 to 4 billion years ago. Minerals in these ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars are the key to understanding the planet’s geologic history, including surface conditions, like the pH, salinity, and temperature of past surface and near-surface waters. This presentation will discuss orbital and in-situ mineralogical detections, focusing on the minerals detected by the CheMin X-ray diffractometer on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. We will talk about how secondary mineral assemblages can be used to infer past aqueous environments and identify some locations in Gale crater that may have been habitable in the distant past.
Biography: Dr. Liz Rampe is a planetary scientist in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at the NASA Johnson Space Center. She got her B.A. in geology from Colgate University, her Ph.D. in geology from Arizona State University, and was a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at JSC. Liz is the Deputy Principal Investigator of the CheMin X-ray diffractometer and X-ray fluorescence spectrometer on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. She has participated in multiple NASA advisory panels related to Mars Sample Return and future missions to Mars, received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 2022 for her work on CheMin, and was awarded the Mineralogical Society of America Dana Medal in 2025 for sustained outstanding scientific contributions through original research in the mineralogical sciences. She is one of the Mineralogical Society of America’s Distinguished Lecturers for the 2025-2026 academic year. She is here today to talk about minerals on Mars in her talk “Minerals on Mars: Reconstructing Past Environments and Evaluating Habitability.”