Student Information
Graduate Student
Geological Sciences
The College of Lib Arts & Sci
Long Bio
I study a wide range of planetary geophysics topics from where to find buried water ice on Mars to the thermal evolution of asteroids. As a PhD student, I am studying how planets fromed by showing that as planetesimals heated, they could have been magnetized by the powerful magnetic field in the early solar system. My past research has included mapping the availability of water ice in the shallow subsurface of Mars, determining the composition of layering in Mars' polar ice caps, designing a seismometer for asteroids to probe their interiors, determining the composition of crater peaks on the Moon using gravity data, and designing a mission to rendezvous with the next interstellar object.
Education
2014-2019 - BS & MS Geophysics - Colorado School of Mines
Research Interests
Planetary geophysics, asteroid magnetism, martian and lunar water ice deposits, planetary seismology, yellowstone geochemistry.
Research Group
"Team Magrathea" planetary formation group led by Drs. Lindy Elkins-Tanton and Joe O'Rourke
Publications
2021 - Lower Bounds on the Thickness and Dust Content of Layers within the North Polar Layered Deposits of Mars from Radar Forward Modeling, SW Courville, MR Perry, NE Putzig, Planetary Science Journal 2, 28
2021 - Bridge to the stars: A mission concept to an interstellar object, K Moore, SW Courville, et. al.
Planetary and Space Science 197
2020 - Speckle noise attenuation in orbital laser vibrometer seismology, SW Courville, PC Sava, Acta Astronautica 172, 16-32