Rosaly M. C. Lopes

Dr. Rosaly M. C. Lopes is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is an expert on volcanoes on Earth and the planets and has worked on the NASA missions Galileo and Cassini. She has visited more than 60 active volcanoes on every continent on earth and written more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. She enjoys bringing the excitement of her research to the general public via lectures, TV shows and books. Rosaly has authored seven books, four for the general public (Volcanoes: A Beginner's Guide, The Volcano Adventure Guide, Alien Volcanoes, Alien Seas, Antarctica: Earth's own Ice World), two at undergraduate level (Volcanic Worlds, Modeling Volcanic Processes) and one at the science research level (Io After Galileo). She lectures all over the world about volcanoes and space exploration at a popular level as well as on her research projects at international conferences.

Rosaly has won numerous awards for her work both in science and outreach. In 2005, she was awarded the Carl Sagan medal by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, in recognition of her success in communicating science to the general public. Her other awards include the Latinas in Science award from the Comision Feminil Mexicana Nacional (1991), the Woman of the Year in Science and Technology Award from the Miami-based GEMS television (1997), the Medal of Excellence from Women at Work (2006), the WINGS award from Girl Scouts (2007), the NASA Exceptional Service medal (2007), the Women of Discovery Award, Air and Space, from Wings Women of Discovery (2009), the Lowell Thomas medal from the Explorers Club (2014), the Explorer award from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Women in Science award from the Adler Planetarium (2018). Asteroid 22454 is named rosalylopes in her honor. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Geological Society of America, and elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics.