Peter Buseck (Regents Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration) Dr. Buseck's research includes solid state geochemistry/mineralogy - the study of crystal defects in minerals at the atomic level using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, geochemistry/cosmochemistry - the origin and character of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites and interplanetary (interstellar?) dust particles, and analytical and environmental geochemistry - the development and application of electron-beam instruments to the analysis of small particles, with emphasis on problems of atmospheric geochemistry and air pollution.

Phil Christensen (Regents Professor and Korrick Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration) Dr. Christensen’s research interests include studying the geologic history and evolution of Earth and Mars. He leads the teams responsible for two major instruments currently orbiting Mars, the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), which is on board the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, and the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), which is on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Dr. Christensen's Mars Space Flight Facility at ASU directly controls THEMIS. A third instrument, mini-TES, is on board the two Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, that landed in January 2004.

Steve Desch (Associate Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration) Dr. Desch studies star and planet formation by combining astrophysical models and numerical simulations with meteoritic data.

Sandra Pizzarello (Research Professor, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry) Dr. Pizzarello's research focuses on the study of organic components of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, and has lead to the recognition, molecular identification, and isotopic characterization of their main extractable organic constituents. Her work involves the analyses of several meteorites of the three chondrites subgroups and the development of new analytical methods. The finding of L-enantiomeric excesses in some meteoritic amino acids has suggested a possible link between chemical evolution and planetary homochirality, leading to the current investigation of the possible source of their asymmetry as well as of model syntheses that would mimic their prebiotic catalytic activity and reactions.

Tom Sharp (Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration) Dr. Sharp's current research areas include: the effect of water on high pressure phase transitions and deformation, high-pressure partitioning of highly siderophile elements and core formation, shock metamorphism and impacts on planetary bodies, chemical weathering on Mars and the structure and distribution of carbon in Earth's earliest microfossils.

Everett Shock (Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration and Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry) Dr. Shock and members of his research group divide their time among building algorithms to estimate thermodynamic data; analyzing water, sediment, rock and biological samples; integrating analytical and thermodynamic data in models of geochemical and microbial processes; and testing ideas about the transport of water and solutes through the environment, the biogeochemical processes of the subsurface biosphere, and the potential for life on other planets.

Mikhail Zolotov (Associate Research Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration) Dr. Zolotov uses physical-chemical modeling to explore behavior of volatiles, mineralogical transformations and redox processes in aqueously processed parent bodies of chondrites, in the solar nebula, icy satellites, and in lithospheres of Mars and Venus.