Role
Collaborator
Biography
Benjamin Byron is a Research Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. He earned a PhD in Physics from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2020 before becoming a postdoctoral scholar at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Central Florida. His research involves using orbital and Earth-based remote sensing observations to interpret the composition and physical properties of airless bodies in the solar system. More specifically, he has utilized ultraviolet through radar wavelength observations from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and other lunar spacecraft to investigate space weathering and better understand the material properties of the lunar surface. He has also performed thermal modeling to interpret how heat propagation through the lunar regolith is affected by things such as rock abundance and porosity. In addition to being a member of the Lunar-VISE team, he is a co-investigator on the LRO Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) and Diviner Lunar Radiometer instrument teams and a participating scientist on the Lucy mission team.