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Libby Ives

Photo of Libby Ives

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Website:

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Member of:

Planetary Geosciences

Biography

Libby is a JPL Postdoctoral Fellow on the Mars 2020 Science Team. She is a geologist, clastic sedimentologist, geomorphologist, and geologic mapper. Libby developed her expertise by studying a diverse suite of sedimentary systems, landscapes, and depositional processes on Earth. This work was primarily conducted through field observations of such field sites as modern glaciers in Iceland, Quaternary glacial deposits of the northern United States, and Paleozoic successions in Argentina, Australia, and Antarctica. The purpose of this work is to reconstruct what the surface of our planet looked like in the distant (and not-so-distant) past, and to understand the processes that drive changes in surficial systems.

At JPL, Libby is contributing to the Mars 2020 team by helping describe and interpret sedimentary rocks in the Jezero Delta using data collected by the Perseverance rover and by working on a regional geologic map of the Nili Fossae region of Mars.

Education

  • Ph.D. Geosciences, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (2021)
  • M.S. Geology, Iowa State University (2016)
  • B.S. Earth Science, Northern Michigan University (2013)

Professional Experience

  • JPL Postdoctoral Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2022 – present)
  • Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey (2021 – 2022)
  • Lecturer, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (2020)
  • Distinguish Graduate and Dissertator Fellow, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (2018 – 2020)

Community Service

  • Early Career Scientist Committee Member, International Association of Sedimentologists, 2022 – 2026
  • Reviewer for Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology; Frontiers in Earth Science; Geology; and Journal of Quaternary Science

Research Interests

  • Sedimentary geology
  • Physical sedimentology
  • Stratigraphy
  • Planetary surface processes
  • Geologic mapping
  • Glacial geology

Selected Awards

  • PEO Scholar Award (2019 – 2020)
  • A.L. Medlin Research Scholarship, GSA Energy Division (2018)
  • Graduate Student Research Grant, GSA (2014, 2018)
  • American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Scholarship (2018)
  • Wisconsin Geological Society Scholarship (2018)
  • U.S. Student Visiting Fellow, Institute for Rock Magnetism (2015)

Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed publications

Ives, L.R.W. and Rawling, J.E. (2022) Pleistocene Geology of Jefferson County, Wisconsin, 1:100,000. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. https://wgnhs.wisc.edu/catalog/publication/000990

Ives, L.R.W., Isbell, J.L., and Licht, K.J. (2022) A “local first” approach to glacigenic sediment provenance demonstrated using U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of the Permo-Carboniferous Wynyard Formation, Tasmanian Basin. The Sedimentary Record. https://doi.org/10.2110/001c.38180

Isbell, J.L.; Vesely, F.F.; Rosa, E.L.M; Pauls, K.N.; Fedorchuk, N.D.; Ives, L.R.W.; McNall, N.B., Litwin, S.A.; Borucki, M.K.; Malone, J.E.l Kusick, A.R. (2021) Evaluation of physical and chemical proxies used to interpret past glaciations with a focus on the late Paleozoic Ice Age. Earth Science Reviews, 103756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103756

Ives, L.R.W. and J.L. Isbell. (2021) A lithofacies analysis of a South Polar glaciation in the early Permian: Pagoda Formation, Shackleton Glacier region, Antarctica. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 91(6), 611-635. https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2021.004

Ives, L. R. W. and Iverson, N. R. (2019). Genesis of glacial flutes inferred from observations at Múlajökull, Iceland. Geology, 47(5), 387-390. https://doi.org/10.1130/G45714.1

Projects

Mars 2020