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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bethany Ehlmann | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethany_Ehlmann | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T18:10:28.212549+00:00 | kb-cron |
Bethany List Ehlmann is an American planetary scientist, geologist, and professor. She is the Director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Ehlmann has three Master's degrees, a Doctor of Philosophy, and an honorary Doctor of Science. From 2011 until mid-2025, Ehlman was a professor of Planetary Science at California Institute of Technology and a Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ehlmann is also the President of The Planetary Society and the Director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies.
== Education and early life == Ehlmann was born in Southern California, where her father, Bryon Ehlmann, was an assistant professor of Computer science at Chapman University. The family then relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, where Bryon was a professor at Florida A&M University and Florida State University. Ehlmann graduated from James S. Rickards High School with an International Baccalaureate Diploma in 2000, where she was awarded the Fred Biletnikoff Award. They then relocated to Edwardsville, Illinois, near Bryon's hometown of St. Charles, Missouri, where he was a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Ehlmann studied at Washington University in St. Louis, double majoring in earth and planetary sciences and environmental studies; and minoring in mathematics. During all four years of her undergraduate studies, she was an Arthur Compton Scholar. In 2001, she won the Varney Prize in Undergraduate Physics and the Fossett Fellowship for the Pathfinder Program in environmental studies. From 2002-2003, she was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and the Morris K. Udall Fellowship. She worked with Professor Raymond Arvidson on operations of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration rovers at JPL for their first 9 months of operations and with a student group from the NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy on a publication describing the benefits of human exploration of Mars. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in 2004. She then attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar beginning in 2004. There, she received two Master of Science degrees, one in Environmental Change and Management under the mentorship of John Boardman, awarded in 2005, and the other in Geography under the mentorship of Heather Viles, awarded in 2007. While at Oxford, she contributed to the analysis of remote sensing data to help evaluate safe landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rover in a 2005 study. Her Geography thesis was entitled "Developing quantitative techniques for evaluating rock breakdown morphology: a case study of basalt boulders in the Channelled Scablands, Washington, USA." Ehlmann then returned to the United States to attend Brown University for a Master of Science degree and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Geological Sciences in the research group of John F. Mustard. During her doctoral career, her focus shifted to studying Mars, utilizing orbital spectral data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), a visible-infrared spectrometer aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that takes measurements from the surface and atmosphere of Mars. CRISM is used to find the signature spectral signatures of different minerals to understand what minerals are present on Mars and form hypotheses on how different geological processes have shaped the planet over the course of its history. Using CRISM data, Ehlmann became the first to identify carbonate-bearing rocks on Mars, the presence of which suggests that water present on Mars when these rocks formed was neutral to alkaline. She also discovered evidence for the presence of a methane-producing mineral called serpentine on Mars. The discovery could be a clue of past life on Mars, as serpentine arises from a mineral called olivine in a hydrothermal process that could serve as an energy source for methane-producing microbes. Her dissertation, published in 2010 and entitled "Early Mars Environments Revealed Through Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Alteration Minerals," documented her investigation of aqueous processes that occurred on ancient Mars during the earliest epoch of Martian history: the Noachian (>3.7 Ga). The work was aimed, in part, at better understanding the changing habitability of Mars over time, as well as understanding how aqueous environments have evolved on Mars. Her dissertation received Brown University's Joukowsky award for the outstanding PhD dissertation. In 2024, Ehlmann received an honorary Doctor of Science from Washington University.
== Research and post-doctoral career ==