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Rosaly M. C. Lopes-GautierWebchat Archives
I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I left
Brazil at the age of 18 to study Astronomy at the University of London,
and graduated in 1978. For my Ph.D., I studied planetary geology and volcanology,
and wrote a thesis on comparative studies of volcanoes on Earth and Mars.
During my studies I became a specialist on the hazards from lava flows and
traveled to erupting volcanoes in Italy and Hawaii, some of the time as
a member of the UK Volcanic Eruption Surveillance Team.
I finished my Ph.D. in 1985 and went on to work as a Curator at the Science Museum in London and later at the Old Royal Observatory at Greenwich, part of the National Maritime Museum. I became Acting Head of the Astronomy section and worked on a new collecting policy for the Museum's Astronomy collection. I also lectured extensively in England and Brazil and wrote numerous popular science articles. Desiring to pursue further research in terrestrial and planetary volcanology, I left the UK in early 1989 to work on hazard mapping at the Vesuvius Observatory in Italy. This position was followed by a Resident Research Associateship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California to pursue planetary studies and work on Flight Projects. I have been at JPL since 1989. I joined the Galileo Flight Project in 1991, working as a science coordinator for the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), one of the major instruments in the spacecraft. I am responsible for planning all of the observations of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io using NIMS. The last few years, since the observations of Io started in 1996, have been very exciting. NIMS can detect active volcanoes on Io (which we call "hot spots") by "seeing" their heat in the infrared. I have been studying how the activity of these hot spots varies and how the hot spots are distributed over the surface of Io. I also have been able to discover more than 20 hot spots that had never been seen before. This has been a big thrill for me. I expect to discover more before the mission in over at the end of 2000. Aside from my research work, I enjoy participating in outreach and education activities, particularly with respect to Hispanic groups and Latin American countries. I received a Latinas in Science Award from the Comision Feminil Mexicana Nacional in 1991 and was selected by the Miami-based GEM television as the 1997 Woman of the Year in Science and Technology. I have a son, Thomas Nicholas, who was born in 1993. He takes up most of my spare time but, when I can, I travel to one of the Earth's magnificent volcanoes and write about them. I am working on a book for Cambridge University Press about some of these volcanoes and how people who are not experts can best visit them. We may never be able to visit the volcanoes on Io, but I hope to share with people my enjoyment of terrestrial volcanoes. More information about Rosaly and other women who work at JPL can be found at: Women at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived Chats
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