Primary Advisor: Catherine Neish
Leah Sacks earned a B.A. in Geology at Carleton College (in the United States). She participated in numerous departmental expeditions including field time in New Zealand. Her senior thesis involved working with members of the United States Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center on data from the Mars Curiosity Rover. The work compared grain-sizes derived from multiple instruments across different locations on the rover’s traverse as well as comparing the instruments themselves.
As an M.Sc. student at Western University, Leah worked with Drs. Livio Tornabene and Gordon Osinski on Martian crater ejecta and remote sensing. Her thesis focused on the Hargraves Crater ejecta and conclusions drawn from HiRISE images of the site. This work has produced several conference abstracts and posters and a publication is in progress. Additionally, she participated in the CanMoon Analogue Rover Mission as part of the remote-sensing team and as the instrument lead for the Visual and Infrared Spectrometer instrument aboard the rover.
Currently, Leah is a PhD student working with Dr. Catherine Neish and Dr. Alyssa Rhoden on planetary tectonics of icy moons. Current plans focus on understanding chasmata formation and tensile stresses on the ice crusts of several small moons. This work will further our understanding of the formation and surfaces of ocean worlds, key components of our search for life and habitability in the solar system.
