Arya Udry, Geoscientist and Alumna

Planetary Scientist

Arya Udry’s (PhD ’14) also received the department’s Young Alumnus Award in 2021. Udry’s research focuses on planetary igneous petrology, including Martian petrology to better understand the interior composition, magmatic processes, and general evolution of the planet Mars. After completing her PhD at UT, she gained an assistant professor position in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is now an associate professor. Arya has won six grants that total over $1.5 million to support her role as a participating scientist on the Mars 2020 (Perseverance) program, graduate research assistantships, NASA research grants for her studies on Martian meteorites, and NASA funded equipment grant for a new laser ablation system at UNLV. Arya has served as a member of the Mars Sample Return Science Planning group, multiple workshop and award committees in the planetary field, and as a member of the curation and analysis planning team for extraterrestrial materials. She has presented over 15 invited seminars and colloquia, as well as a multitude of outreach events and media coverage highlighting her research. Arya was the recipient of the UNLV Barrick Scholar Award, which “recognizes faculty members who have established a record of distinguished research or demonstrated excellence in the area of creative activity” and also the Meteoritical Society’s 2022 Nier Prize recipient, which recognizes outstanding research in meteoritics and closely allied fields by young scientists.