Dr. Lopes gave an informational talk about the work that she has been doing over the span of her career. She highlighted the important role that volcanoes play here on Earth as well as the importance of analyzing volcanoes on moons and planets in space. She also talked about how terrestrial and celestial volcanoes have not only impacted our scientific thinking, but have also shaped culture through human history.
Dr. Rosaly M. C. Lopes is currently a Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research is centered around planetary and terrestrial geology and volcanology. In 1991, as a member of the Galileo Flight Project, a mission to Jupiter, she was responsible for observations of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. She subsequently discovered 71 active volcanoes on Io, for which she was honored in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records as the discoverer of the most active volcanoes anywhere.
