Margaret Landis

My research focuses on the polar regions of objects in the inner solar system to understand how and when rocky planets obtain volatiles, especially water, and how those volatiles evolve over time. I use a combination of remote sensing data from spacecraft and numerical models to address these questions.

I am a frequent participant on robotic spacecraft projects, including:

Co-Investigator, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

Co-Investigator, Lunar-VISE rover mission to the Gruithuisen Domes on the Moon

Science team member, Lunar Reconissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner radiometer

Science team member on the Dawn at Ceres project, including as a post-doctoral scientist on the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND)

Before coming to ASU, I spent several years University of Colorado-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. There, I built an externally funded research program through a combination of NASA ROSES grants and flight project funding. This program supported myself, PhD and undergraduate students, and a post-doctoral scholar.

I am excited to start as a faculty member at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration in Fall 2025, where I will continue to support and mentor students in and out of the classroom.

I earned my PhD in Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, where I worked with Dr. Shane Byrne. Before that, I earned Bachelors of Science in Physics and Astronomy (with math and biology minors) at Northern Arizona University, conducting undergraduate research with Dr. Nadine Barlow and through a NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA.

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