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Samantha Gwizd

Photo of Samantha Gwizd

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

M/S 264-850

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Planetary Geosciences

Biography

Samantha is a JPL Postdoctoral Fellow on the Mars 2020 Science Team and the RAVEN (Rover-Aerial Vehicle Exploration Network) project. Her main research interests are understanding the depositional history of ancient environments recorded in stratigraphic successions by combining assessments of facies and depositional processes with compositional (geochemical, mineralogic) signatures. This combined approach is crucial to fully understand all source-to-sink sediment processes at the basin scale.

At JPL, she is utilizing data acquired by the Perseverance rover to understand the depositional history of sedimentary successions at Jezero crater and contextualize interpretations with previous orbital mapping efforts. She is also a member of the RAVEN Mars analog project, which aims to optimize science operations for a combined rover-helicopter mission scenario.

Education

  • Ph.D. Geology- University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2023)
  • M.S. Geological Sciences- University of California, Santa Barbara (2015)
  • B.A. Earth Sciences- Boston University (2013)

Professional Experience

  • JPL Postdoctoral Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2023 – present)
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant- UTK Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences (2016-2023)
  • Lab Manager – Princeton University Maloof and Schoene Labs (2015-2016)
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant- UCSB Dept. of Earth Sciences (2013-2015)

Community Service

  • Panelist- Fernbank Science Center Mars 2020 landing (2021)
  • Panel coordinator, UTK Mars 2020 launch party (2020)
  • Reviewer- Student Spaceflight Experiment Proposals for the International Space Station (2019)
  • Coordinator- Mars Rovers booth, Bearden High School (2019)
  • Session co-convener- Geological Society of America annual meeting, 2018
  • Treasurer/secretary- UTK Geoclub (2017-2018)
  • Coordinator- Soft Rock Brown Bag seminar (2017-2018)
  • Student Docent- McClung Museum of Natural History (2017-2020)

Research Interests

Clastic sedimentology and stratigraphy; Ancient depositional environments on Mars; The compositional record of source-to-sink sediment history; Applications of remote science operations through Mars analog studies;

Selected Awards

  • Excellence in Teaching award- Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee (2022)
  • Tennessee Space Grant Scholarship (2020)
  • Vesta Mayo Scholarship (2018)
  • University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Fellowship- 2016

Selected Publications

  1. Gwizd, S., Fedo, C., Grotzinger, J., Banham, S., Rivera‐Hernández, F., Stack, K.M., Siebach, K., Thorpe, M., Thompson, L., O’Connell‐Cooper, C. and Stein, N., 2022. Sedimentological and Geochemical Perspectives on a Marginal Lake Environment Recorded in the Hartmann's Valley and Karasburg Members of the Murray Formation, Gale Crater, Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 127(8), p.e2022JE007280.
  2. Achilles, C. N., Rampe, E., Downs, R. T., Bristow, T. F., Ming, D. W., Morris, R. V., Vaniman, D. T., Blake, D. F., Yen, A. S., McAdam, A. C., Sutter, B., Fedo, C. M., Gwizd, S., Thompson, L. M., Gellert, R., Morrison, S. M., Treiman, A. H., Crisp, J. A., Gabriel, T. S. J., Chipera, S. J., Hazen, R. M., Craig, P. I., Thorpe, M. T., Des Marais, D. J., Grotzinger, J. P., Tu, V. M., Castle, N., Downs, G. W., Peretyazhko, T. S., Walroth, R. C., Sarrazin, P., and Morookian, J. M. Evidence for Multiple Diagenetic Episodes in Ancient Fluvial‐Lacustrine Sedimentary Rocks in Gale Crater, Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research- Planets 125, no. 8 (2020): e2019JE006295.
  3. Gwizd, S. J., & Lea, D. W. (2020). A new Upper and Middle Pleistocene stratigraphic and dissolution record from the Carnegie Platform, Eastern Equatorial Pacific. Marine Micropaleontology, 157, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marmicro.2020.101857.
  4. Rivera‐Hernández, F., Sumner, D. Y., Mangold, N., Banham, S. G., Edgett, K. S., Fedo, C. M., Gupta, S., Gwizd, S., Heydari, E., Maurice, S., Nachon, M., Newsom, H., Schieber, J., Stack-Morgan, K., Stein, N. and Wiens, R. C. (2020). Grain size variations in the Murray formation: Stratigraphic evidence for changing depositional environments in Gale crater, Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 125(2), e2019JE006230.
  5. Scudder, R. P., Murray, R. W., Schindlbeck, J. C., Kutterolf, S., Hauff, F., Underwood, M. B., Gwizd, S., Lauzon, R., and McKinley, C. C. (2016). Geochemical approaches to the quantification of dispersed volcanic ash in marine sediment. Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 3, 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40645-015-0077-y

Projects

Mars 2020