Shane Byrne

Shane Byrne was born in Drogheda, Ireland, in 1975. He received the M.Phys. degree in astrophysics from the University of Wales, Cardiff, U.K., in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in planetary sciences from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, in 2003. After post-doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, and the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ, USA, he joined the faculty of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA, in 2007, where he is a Professor and an Assistant Department Head. He is the Director of the Space Imagery Center, a NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility, which archives planetary spacecraft and telescopic data not available online and conducts outreach events. He specializes in surface processes on planetary bodies especially those that affect, or are driven by planetary ices. He and his research group have over 100 publications covering the Solar System objects ranging from Mercury to Umbriel. He is a Co-Investigator on the HiRISE and CaSSIS cameras at Mars and a Guest Investigator on the Dawn mission at Ceres and a Principal Investigator of technology development awards for Europa Lander Cameras.