Mars geologist available to comment on NASA’s Curiosity rover findings

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Mars geologist available to comment on NASA’s Curiosity rover findings

HOUSTON – (June 5, 2018) – Rice University planetary science expert Kirsten Siebach is available through June 7, when NASA will announce new findings from its Mars Curiosity rover.

NASA Mars rover photo

Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

According to a media advisory, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are inviting the media and public to ask questions during a live event at 1 p.m. CDT June 7. The briefing will be available online on NASA Television and NASA’s website.

Siebach, who is a self-described Martian geologist, is an assistant professor in Rice’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science. Her work focuses on understanding the history of water interacting with sediments on Mars and early Earth through analysis of sedimentary rock textures and chemistry. She is currently a member of the Science and Operations Teams for the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Mars Science Laboratory.

Members of the news media who would like to interview Siebach should contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7.

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Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/06/Kirsten-Siebach_Big_Sur_California-1ba1wsa.jpg
Photo courtesy of Kirsten Siebach

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/06/Mars-rover-NASA-vllgk0.jpg
Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Follow Kirsten Siebach on Twitter @KirstenSiebach.

Follow the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science on Twitter @RiceEarthSci

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,970 undergraduates and 2,934 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.

About David Ruth

David Ruth is director of national media relations in Rice University's Office of Public Affairs.