Christopher Edwards

Christopher S. Edwards is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northern Arizona University. He is a participating scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover (MSL), and has worked on numerous other Mars missions including the 2001 Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), Mars Exploration Rovers Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). Edwards participated on these science and instrument teams while pursuing his PhD at Arizona State University, as the Planetary Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, as a Research Scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center and now at NAU. His research focuses on the composition, physical properties and processes, and morphology of planetary surfaces, with an emphasis on rocky bodies including the Earth. A major element of his research has been the design and development of infrared remote sensing instruments for use in space, the laboratory and for fieldwork. His research uses infrared spectroscopy, radiometry, laboratory spectroscopic measurements, geologic field observations, and numerical modeling, and has taken him to field sites in the western U.S., Yellowstone, Hawaii, and Spain, as well as the Himalayan mountains of Bhutan.