Biography

Dr. Garvin is the Chief Scientist of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a Co-investigator on the Curiosity Mars rover imaging team. His research interests span impact cratering, quantitative geomorphology, sedimentology, with emphasis on Mars, Venus, the Moon, and oceanic island landscape systems. He served as the chief scientist of the Shuttle Laser Altimeter experiment (STS-72, STS-85), the PI for Hubble Space Telescope UV imaging of the Moon, and conducted field observations at the Zhamanshin impact crater. He served on the post-Challenger Sally Ride Committee, Chaired the NASA Administrator's Decadal Planning Team, and was NASA's first chief scientist for Mars Exploration. His research has spanned lander-based geology of Venus and Mars, as well as the evolution of recent volcanic islands. More recently he served as a Co-Chair for the Europa Lander Science Definition Team, and as an Associate Project Scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. One of his current research efforts focuses on understanding the evolution of a new volcanic island in Tonga (Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai) from satellite optical and radar remote sensing. He is currently leading (as PI) the DAVINCI mission to Venus, selected for flight in the NASA Discovery Program competition for planetary missions in June 2021; once launched (June 2029), DAVINCI will return humanity to the Venus atmosphere (and to the surface in the tesserae known as Alpha Regio) in the 2030-2031 time frame to explore our mysterious sister planet. He is also supporting the international Mars Ice Mapper mission concept under development by partners from Canada, Japan, Italy, and NASA.