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Rutu Parekh

Photo of Rutu Parekh

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Website:

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Member of:

Planetary Geosciences

Biography

I am a planetary geologist studying icy surface processes on Rhea (Saturn’s second largest moon), Mars, Vesta, Ceres, Ryugu, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto utilizing various mission data including Cassini, MRO, Mars Express, Dawn, Hayabbusa2, Galileo. I have multi-disciplinary background where I try to connect bridge between remote sensing analysis and surface geological process. Throughout my PhD, I focused onto understand the influence of subsurface volatile and their distribution on the surface of Vesta and Ceres.

Specifically, I am interested in the formation and production of regolith, a cemented material covered over a stable surface, which formed by weathering, erosion, transportation, excavation and/or deposition of the relatively older subsurface mixtures. The ongoing formation of a regolith cover is considered as a final stage of surface evolution; hence their studies related to regolith morphology provide opportunity to identify and interpret the geological process which dominate on the surface of icy planetary objects.

So far, I focused my study on the image analysis, however, for my post-doctoral project I have broaden my horizon by exploring various techniques such as numerical modeling to produce the surface degradation time-line and targeted laboratory analogues to inquire the influence of heterogenous volatile distribution on the surface regolith. For my current project, I aim to anlayse small-scale surface features by investigating higher resolution Galileo mission data for Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. In preparation for the Europa Clipper mission, comparative analysis of various surface features on Galilean satellites (Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) with Ceres and Vesta will be conducted. Especially, the continuum from dominantly icy regolith (Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) to partially icy regolith (Ceres) to relatively dry regolith (Vesta) will permit understanding of the differences in regolith dynamics as related to ice content.

Education

  • August 2018- March 2022 Freie University of Berlin & Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany - Ph.D. - Planetary science Thesis Focus: Volatile transportation, Vesta, Ceres, Small planetary objects
  • 2016-2017 University of Bristol, United Kingdom - M.Sc. - Earth Science Thesis Focus: Martian volcanism and surface geomorphology
  • 2011-2013 Canter for Environmental Planning and technology (CEPT Uni.), India - M.Sc. - Faculty of technology Focus: Geomatics and Remote sensing
  • 2008-2011 St. Xavier’s College, Gujarat University, India - B.Sc. - Major: Biochemistry and Chemistry

Professional Experience

  • Aug. 2018- March 2022 DLR/DAAD PhD Research Fellow at DLR Institute of Planetary Research and Freie University of Berlin on project entitled ‘Evaluating Volatile Induced Surface Features on Vesta and Ceres’ Advisors: Prof. Dr. Ralf Jaumann, Prof. Dr. Lena Noack, Dr. Katharina Otto (Magna-cum laude).
  • April 2018- July 2018 Project Technical trainee at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Department of Geoscience, India. Project on ‘Martian Volcanism’. Adviser: Dr. Anil D Shukla.
  • July 2015- Nov. 2015 Jan. 2016- May 2016 Academic associate at CEPT University Ahmedabad, India. Subjects: Advance remote sensing, Remote sensing to graduate students (part-time).
  • Feb. 2015- Aug. 2015 Research Assistant at Faculty of Technology, CEPT University. Project on ‘Desertification Status Mapping of India’. Adviser: Prof. Dr. Anjana Vyas.
  • June 2013- March 2014 Research Assistant at Faculty of Technology, CEPT University. Project on ‘Hybrid Polarimetry Signature Study under Desertic Environment (RISAT-1 Utilization programme)’ in collaboration with Space Applications Center (SAC, ISRO). Advisers: Dr. R.L. Mehta, Prof. Dr. Anjana Vyas

Community Service

  • Since Oct. 2022 - Member of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) working group of Europa Clipper mission
  • Oct. 2017- Feb. ‘22 - Serving as secretary at Europlanet Diversity committee. The responsibilities include preparing the documents related to code of conducts, conference guidelines (EPSCs), encourage early career friendly scientific environments and build diverse planetary science community in Europe.
  • Sep. 2019- April ‘22 - Chair of Europlanet Early career (EPEC) Diversity working group. As first chair, the management responsibilities include leading and organizing discussion, workshops and lectures at EPEC annual meetings (https://bit.ly/3fIwHk3). Along with team we also started first YouTube series of “EPEC Motivational Journeys” (https://bit.ly/2PXcfRA).
  • 2019- ‘20 - Helmholtz Spokesperson (HeJu) and PhD representative of DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany. Representatives from 19 institution around Germany work together with an aim to improvise working conditions of doctoral researchers.
  • 2019- ‘21 - Elected as committee member of Geo.X Young Academy at the research network of Geoscience community in Berlin and Potsdam.
  • 2012- ‘13 - Lead member in organizing 8 workshops and guest lectures at Center for Environments planning and technology (CEPT University).

Research Interests

Planetary geology, geomorphology, laboratory analogue, spectroscopy, planetary volatiles, volcanism, surface process, icy planetary bodies, mass wasting, impact craters, surface modeling, regolith

Selected Awards

  • 2018- ‘22 - DLR/DAAD PhD Research Fellow for pursuing Ph.D at DLR and FU Berlin.
  • 2021 - Student travel grant to present talk at Geological Society of America (GSA).
  • 2020- ‘21 - USA-DAAD (USA-German) PPP Grant to carry out join short-term research project entitled ‘Volatile Outgassing in Mass-wasting Processes on Vesta and Ceres’ at DLR and SwRI (San Antonio).
  • 2020 - Winner of button design organized by Geological Society of America, Planetary Geology Division (PGD, https://community.geosociety.org/pgd/aboutus/pgd-buttons).
  • 2018 - Europlanet Student Bursary to attend the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) on Sep 16-21.
  • 2017 - Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) grant for presentation at European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) on Sept 17-22.
  • 2016- ‘17 - Chevening fully-funded Royal Scholarship to pursue Master at University of Bristol, UK.
  • 2013 - Best Graduating Student in Overall performance during Masters at CEPT University.

Selected Publications

WHITE PAPER PUBLICATIONS

  1. Co-author in The Importance of Field Studies for Closing Key Knowledge Gaps in Planetary Science, (2021), White paper submitted to in Planetary Science. Bulletin of the AAS, 53(4). DOI: 10.3847/25c2cfeb.0a087f9f\.
  2. Co-author in Science Motivations for the Future Exploration of Ceres, Community white paper for the Planetary Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Bulletin of the AAS, American Astronomical Society, 2021, 53 (4) DOI: 10.3847/25c2cfeb.542c3be2, hal-03391895f.

PUBLICATIONS IN PEER-REVIWED JOURNALS

  1. Parekh, R., Otto, K. A., Jaumann, R., Hauber, E., Russell, C.T. Raymond, C.A., Small-scale pit chains on Ceres and their relation with surface regolith. (In preparation).
  2. Parekh, R., Matz, K.D., Otto, K.A., Jaumann, R., Krohn, K., Roatsch, T., Kersten, E., Elgner, S., Raymond, C.A., Russell, C.T., (2021b), Formation of ejecta and dust pond deposits on asteroid Vesta. JGR: Planets, 126, e2021JE006873. DOI: 10.1029/2021JE006873 .
  3. Parekh, R., Otto, K.A., Jaumann, R., Matz, K. D., Roatsch, T., Kersten, E., Elgner, S., Raymond, C.A., (2021a), Influence of Volatiles on Mass Wasting Processes on Vesta and Ceres. JGR: Planets, 126(3). DOI: 10.1029/2020JE006573.
  4. Otto, K.A., Matz, K.D., Schröder, S.E., Parekh, R., Krohn, K., Honda, R., Kameda, S., Jaumann, R., Schmitz, N., Stephan, K., Sugita, S., Tatsumi, E, Ho, T-M., Koncz, A., Trauthan, F., Cho, Y., Hayakawa, M., Honda, C., Kouyama, N., Matsukoa, M., Morota, T., Ogawa, K., Preusker, F., Sakatani, N., Sawada, H., Scholten, F., Suzuki, H., Yamada, M., Yokota, Y., Yoshioka, K., (2021), Surface roughness of asteroid (162173) Ryugu and comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko inferred from in situ observations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500(3), 3178-3193. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa3314.
  5. Brož, P., Bernhardt, H., Conway, S.J., Parekh, R., (2020), An overview of explosive volcanism on Mars. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 107125. DOI: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2020.107125
  6. Jaumann, R., Schmitz, N., Ho, T-M., Schröder, S., Otto., K.A., Stephan, K., Elgner, S., Krohn, K., Preusker, F., Scholten, F., Biele, J., Ulamec, S., Krause, C., Sugita, S., Matz, K.D., Roatsch, T., Parekh, R., Mottola, S. Grott, M., Michel, P., Trauthan, F., Koncz, A., Michaelis,H., Lange, C., Grundmann, J.T., Maibaum, M., Sasaki, K., Wolff, F., Reill, J., Moussi-Soffys, A., Lorda, L., Neumann, W., Vincent, J-B, Wagner, R., Bibring, J-P, Kameda, S., Kameda, S., Yano, H., Watanabe, S., Yoshikawa, M., Tsuda, Y., Okada, T., Yoshimitsu, T., Mimasu, Y., Saiki, T., Yabuta, H., Rauer, H., Honda, R., Morota, T., Yokota, Y., Kouyama, T., (2019), Images from the surface of asteroid Ryugu show rocks similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Science, 365(6455),817-820. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw8627.
  7. Parekh, R.A., Mehta, R.L., Vyas, A., (2016), Rabi cropped area forecasting of parts of Banaskatha District, Gujarat using MRS RISAT-1 SAR data. Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLI-B8, 1413–1416. DOI: 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLI-B8-1413-2016.
  8. Parekh, R.A., Mohan, S., Mehta, R.L., Vyas, A., (2015), Feature Discrimination Using RISAT-1 Dual Polarisation SAR data. Journal of Geomatics, 9(2), 245-248.

Projects

Dawn
Europa Clipper