WVUniverse presents "The History and Future of Mars Exploration"

The Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology presents the next WVUniverse talk for the month of April and will feature Catherine Regan, PhD.

April 11, 2025
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
G09 White Hall
135 Willey Street, Morgantown, WV 26506

WVUniverse presents “The History and Future of Mars Exploration” and will feature Catherine Regan, PhD, who is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the WVU Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Catherine is a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science. Coming from a geophysics and plasma physics background, her research interests include the coupling between planetary environments from the surface and atmosphere, up to the ionosphere and magnetosphere, particularly at Mars. Catherine is currently working on the effects of magnetic pumping on local plasma environments in the magnetospheres of magnetized and unmagnetized planets. She looks at these impacts at Mars with NASA's MAVEN mission, and at Earth with NASA's MMS mission. 
   
Catherine completed her Ph.D. at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London in 2024 where she researched the impact of dust storms on the induced magnetosphere of Mars. She used data from MAVEN in addition to ESAs Mars Express to analyze magnetospheric boundaries and their variations over these atmospheric events. During her Ph.D., Catherine was heavily involved in public engagement and science communication, chairing a number of working groups and running her own project, Eyes on Mars, inspired by the PanCam instrument on the upcoming Rosalind Franklin Rover. Her outreach work has been recognized by multiple awards. 
   
Catherine is on the science team for the ASPERA-3 instrument on ESAs Mars Express, and the PanCam instrument on ESAs upcoming Mars rover, Rosalind Franklin, which is due to launch in 2028.