Oct 23, 2020
Dr. Harrison is known widely in the planetary science and research industry as Tanya of Mars. Why?
Tanya is the founder of Professional Martian LLC, a company focused
on science and sci-fi consulting, communications, and outreach in
ways to break space out of the echo chamber to reach broader
audiences.
Currently, she is the Manager of Science Programs at Planet Federal
in Washington DC, the government-focused arm of Planet Labs.
In this role, she helps scientists understand the utility of—and
how to access, process, and use—Planet's incredible daily imaging
of the entire landmass of the Earth and its coral reefs.
Tanya was the Director of Research for Arizona State
University's Space Technology and Science ("NewSpace") Initiative
where she worked on commercial-academic space partnerships and
martian geomorphology research. She was the Science Team
Collaborator on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity and
the upcoming Mars 2020 sample caching rover.
Tanya received her Ph.D. in Geology with a specialization in
Planetary Science and Exploration from the University of Western
Ontario's Centre for Planetary Science and Space Exploration
(CPSX). From 2008 until 2012, was on the science operations team
for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX)
and Mars Color Imager (MARCI) at Malin Space Science Systems
(MSSS).
In Tanya’s own words: For CTX, I chose what the camera takes
pictures of in a given week and then analyze those images from a
geologist’s standpoint. For MARCI, I wrote weather reports for the
general public, as well as a few times for the Spirit and
Opportunity rover teams to alert them of any impending storms that
could threaten the rovers. I was also a science team collaborator
for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Mast Cameras (Mastcam),
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), and Mars Descent Imager (MARDI).
While this work was exciting, I made the decision after 4 years to
return to graduate school and get my Ph.D.
My undergraduate degree is in astronomy and physics from the
University of Washington, and I did my graduate work in geology
(well, “Earth and Environmental Sciences”) at Wesleyan University.
Areas of interest include martian geomorphology and terrestrial
analogues, spectroscopy, and glaciology. My work in astronomy has
involved cooling mechanisms of interstellar dust clouds, diffuse
interstellar bands, the metallicity of the old, metal-rich cluster
NGC 6791, and the metallicity and lithium abundances of the
recurrent novae T Coronae Borealis and RS Ophiuchi.
I have also been active in education and public outreach, getting
involved with organizations such as The Planetary Society,
Expanding Your Horizons, Girl Scouts, Norwescon, The Mars Society,
and The National Space Society.
In my spare time, I am a professional photographer and
the owner/photographer behind Station Toronto.
Where to find Tanya: http://tanyaofmars.com/ and tanya@tanyaofmars.com