Geology & Environmental Science Colloquium: Dr. Bob Anderson | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

From Pitt to the Red Planet: A Robotic Journey to Mars Presented by Dr. Bob Anderson | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology GES Distinguished Alumnus, 2026 We are proud to announce that Dr. Anderson is this year's Distinguished Alumni honoree, recognizing his nearly three-decade career of pioneering contributions to Mars exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and his continued leadership at the forefront of planetary science. Talk Abstract: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring the surface of Gale Crater for over ten years. To date, Curiosity has collected more than 855,000 images from its various cameras and 36 powderized rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm. In addition, after 10 years, the rover has now driven up over 2,000 vertical feet on the mountain. With all this data, what have we learned from ten years of exploration on the Martian surface? In this presentation, we will highlight what Curiosity has found in Gale Crater to determine whether Mars was capable of supporting life. Biography: Dr. Anderson is a Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he serves as Investigation Scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory's Sample Acquisition, Sample Processing and Handling System and as Principal Investigator of SPARTA, a geomechanical/geochemical instrument for characterizing planetary regolith. He holds a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Pittsburgh and has spent over three decades studying Mars's tectonic evolution and regolith mechanics. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2018 and serves on the ISRM Commission on Planetary Rock Mechanics, with over 100 publications to his name.