Women in Planetary Science: Meet Megan Elwood Madden

Today we kick off the 51 Women project with a feature on Megan Elwood Madden, an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma who I remember meeting in one of the first Early Career Workshops at LPSC.  Megan and I caught up recently over email — here is the abstract to one of her recent publications, an investigation into Mars’ Meridiani Planum.  Scroll down to learn more about Megan and to hear her career advice for students.

How long was Meridiani Planum wet? Applying a jarosite stopwatch to determine the duration of aqueous diagenesis
Megan E. Elwood Madden, Andrew S. Madden, and J. Donald Rimstidt

Jarosite dissolution rates can be used to determine the duration of water at Meridiani Planum and other environments containing this ephemeral, metastable ferric sulfate salt. The maximum duration of aqueous fl uids in the region is calculated based on the dissolution rate of jarosite under varying temperature and ionic strength conditions. Jarosite lifetimes predicted in this study range from 1.5 a in warm dilute environments to 100 ka in NaCl-saturated brines at 250 K. The preservation of jarosite within rocks at Meridiani Planum requires that aqueous fluids were active over a small fraction of the billions of years since jarosite formed or was deposited in the region, limiting the probability of life being established in such a temporally restricted system. In addition, water-related features such as hematite spherules and crystal molds must have formed relatively quickly during this geologically short period of aqueous diagenesis.*

1) What is your current position at the University of Oklahoma?  Why did you choose Oklahoma?

I am an Assistant Professor of Geochemistry within the School of Geology and Geophysics. I choose to come to Oklahoma because it has a strong geology program with lots of support for research and teaching. They also managed to create a tenure-track position for my husband as well, so we won the dual career lottery. We interviewed at lots of schools and had offers from others, but we were really impressed with how Oklahoma provided support to help us be successful, especially on the tenure track. Norman is also a great university town with a low cost of living, fantastic schools and daycares, and was within a (long) day’s drive of our family.

2) Did you postdoc?  Where and for how long?

I did a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee for two years before moving to Oklahoma.  I worked in their gas hydrates lab and learned a lot about writing proposals, managing students and grants.

3) When did you first become interested in space (or geo) science?

My parents and grandparents took me on lots of field trips as a kid, including lots of geology related locations. I always loved all areas of science and geology seemed like a good choice since it applied all kinds of science- biology, chemistry, physics to study the natural world.  I took physical geology as a freshman in college and I was completely hooked.  You can look at rocks and tell fantastic stories about the processes and environments in which they formed. I was introduced to planetary geology in grad school- my advisor gave me a choice of many projects to work on and I decided to try modeling chemical weathering on Mars. I haven’t looked back since!

4) Do you have any advice for undergraduate or graduate students considering a career in space science?

My advice would be to set moderate-term goals and work towards them every day. At times things can seem overwhelming, but if you can see how each small step you take leads you to your goal, somehow it becomes more manageable.  Life as a scientist can be busy and at times frustrating, but it is also very rewarding.

Also, I’d like students to know that you can be a successful scientist and have interests outside of the lab as well.  There are many young scientists now who balance work and family or hobbies. Even though people like to “brag” that they spend 80 hours a week in the lab, that is not the norm. You can be a productive scientist for 40-50 hours a week and be successful.

Thanks, Megan, for participating!  If you have a question or comment for Megan, leave them below — and please come back next Friday for the next featured woman planetary scientist.

*Megan E. Elwood Madden, Andrew S. Madden, and J. Donald Rimstidt, “How long was Meridiani Planum wet? Applying a jarosite stopwatch to determine the duration of aqueous diagenesis.”  Geology, July 2009; v. 37; no. 7; p. 635–638.