Laurie Ann Leshin

Laurie Ann Leshin, a member of the Aldridge Commission, "is the director of Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies and the Dee and John Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor of geological sciences at the University. Her research focuses on understanding the formation and evolution of our solar system and its planets. She currently leads a team that is designing a potential mission to Mars for collection of Mars soil samples. She is widely published in her field of study. Her Ph.D. is from California Institute of Technology." 

-- From the MarsBlog at the Louisiana Mars Society, January 31, 2004:
 * "a planetary geochemist at Arizona State University"


 * Alumni Profile.
 * Member of Mars Polar Lander mission team.
 * Teaches classes in spacecraft mission design.
 * Author of paper estimating an abundance of water on Mars based on studies of deuterium in Martian meteorites.
 * Falls on the humans or humans-and-robots side of the human vs. robots debate. Has significant professional focus on Mars.