Ph.D. Candidate at Rice University

Eleanor Moreland

Eleanor (Ellie) Moreland is a Ph.D. candidate in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Rice University. Before coming to Rice, Ellie earned her B.A. in Geology from Washington University in St. Louis. Her early research used aqueous geochemistry to explore iron oxidation pathways on Mars and reflectance spectroscopy to understand mineralogy of Martian aeolian deposits. Now, as part of the Mars 2020 Perseverance science team, Ellie studies Martian mineralogy and geochemistry with the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL). Ellie supports the operations of the PIXL instrument and works to elucidate mineralogy using the novel Mineral Identification by Stoichiometry (MIST) algorithm. Her broader research spans surface processes and paleoenvironments on Mars and other planets, including studies of redox-driven mineral associations and climate modeling of ancient lake systems.