Our research interests have been primarily in understanding the physical processes that control the evolution of terrestrial planets (Earth, Moon, Mars, ...). Modern space exploration has provided high resolution gravity and topography data about many planets. Other observational techniques including seismology and in-situ sampling have revealed the structure and composition of planetary interiors (primarily for Earth and its Moon, but soon for Mars as well). Understanding the physical processes that are responsible for these observations and how they are related to thermal evolution of planets is our primary goal of research. Because the planetary dynamics depend on how a planet responds to forces (i.e., a material property called the rheology), another major aspect of our research is to understand the rheological properties of Earth's materials.
