Rosaly Lopes head shot

Rosaly Lopes

Senior Research Scientist/Manager for Planetary Science, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Rosaly Lopes is a Senior Research Scientist and Manager for Planetary Science at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Specializing in planetary and terrestrial geology and volcanology, Lopes has traveled extensively to active volcanoes on all continents. Lopes worked on the Galileo mission and was responsible for observations of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io from 1996 to 2001, discovering 71 active volcanoes. She is currently the Investigation Scientist on the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper Team and is studying the geology of Titan, particularly its strange ice volcanoes. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Geological Society of America.

Rosaly also serves on The Planetary Society's Advisory Council.

Latest Articles

Field trip to Piton

Rosaly Lopes relates her time at a workshop in Piton.

First view of Piton volcano, Reunion Island

There are about 60 volcanologists here at the meeting and we are wondering if the volcano is going to erupt and, if it does, what we will be able to see.

Expedition to Piton volcano, Reunion Island

It so happens that there is a Calderas Workshop going on the same week as DPS and I was invited to talk about planetary calderas. I chose several on Venus, Mars and Io to focus on.

Latest Planetary Radio Appearances

Apollo 11 and the Woman Who Helped Get It Home

Poppy Northcutt was a pioneer—the first woman to work as an engineer in Apollo Mission Control. The program she helped to create got the astronauts back to Earth. Fifty years later, she sits down with Mat Kaplan for a look back.

Ice, Snow and Lava: Exploring Antarctica’s Mount Erebus

Earth’s southernmost active volcano may also be its most remote. Rosaly Lopes and Michael Carroll recently spent a few frigid days on the slopes of Antarctica’s Mount Erebus. What they learned may help us understand volcanos on other worlds.

Pluto and Titan and Iran, Oh My!

Back to the annual meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences this week, where Mat Kaplan visited with experts on worlds of ice including Titan and Pluto, with a side trip to the dunes of Iran.