Fields Geophysics | Field Geophysics | |
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Born June 5, 1956 (age 60)
Christchurch, New Zealand ( 1956-06-05 ) Notable awards Asteroid 5292 Mackwell (2016)
Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
Stipendiat der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (1996)
Ministère de L’Education Nationale, Academie de Lille, Nommé Professeur (1996)
Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America (1996) Alma maters University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Institutions Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Rice University | ||
Stephen J. Mackwell (born June 5, 1956) is an internationally recognized researcher in geophysics, specializing in laboratory-based studies of the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of geological materials. He is also interested in the transport of fluid components in mantle and crustal rocks on the microscopic and macroscopic scales, and on the effects of such components on mechanical properties. He has authored or co-authored over 80 articles in international scientific journals and is an editor of a book on comparative climatology of terrestrial planets published by the University of Arizona Press.
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Education
Stephen J. Mackwell received a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics in August 1978 at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He continued his studies at the University of Canterbury and earned his M.Sc. in Physics in August 1979. His master’s thesis was titled “Excitation Temperatures for Late Type Stars.” He went on to receive his Diploma of Education at Christchurch Teachers College in New Zealand in November 1979. He earned his Ph.D. in Geophysics in March 1985 from the Research School of Earth Sciences of the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. His dissertation was titled “Diffusion and Weakening Effects of Water in Quartz and Olivine.”
Early career
Stephen J. Mackwell worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from 1984 to 1987, and then moved to the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor in 1987 and subsequently Associate Professor of Geosciences in 1992. He was Program Director for Geophysics in the Earth Sciences Division at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. from 1993-1994, and spent 1996 as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Bayreuth, Germany. In 1998, Mackwell became a Full Professor for Experimental Geophysics at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut at the University of Bayreuth. In January 2000 he was appointed Director of the Bayerisches Geoinstitut and served there until December 2002.
Director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute
Stephen J. Mackwell returned to the United States in late 2002 as Director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in Houston, Texas. As Director of the LPI, a division of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Mackwell was at the helm of an organization established by NASA during the Apollo era to perform cutting-edge research on the formation and evolution of the Moon, planets, and other celestial objects; foster international collaboration; and to act as a repository for lunar and planetary information gathered during the early years of the space program. The LPI currently has nearly 70 staff members and performs many roles in service to NASA, the planetary science community, and the public at large. In addition, Mackwell managed USRA’s Houston facility and education programs including the NASA Internships Program and the Air Force Research Laboratory Intern Program. In 2016, Dr. Louise Prockter became the Director of the LPI, and Mackwell was named as the USRA Corporate Director of Science Programs.
Mackwell has served on the editorial board of numerous prestigious planetary science journals, including serving as editor-in-chief for the journal Geophysical Research Letters from 2002 to 2004. He currently serves on the advisory board for the journal Physics and Chemistry of Minerals. Mackwell is a respected senior member of the planetary science community and has participated in numerous NASA review and advisory panels and National Research Council committees, including the 2013–2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey Steering Group and Inner Planets Panel. He is also a current member of the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science of the Space Studies Board, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Mackwell has also been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth Science at Rice University in Houston, Texas from July 2005 to present.
Honors
Stephen J. Mackwell has been the recipient of numerous honors, including Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2010; Stipendiat der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bayreuth, Germany in 1996; Ministère de L’Education Nationale, Academie de Lille, Nommé Professeur in 1996; and Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America in 1996.
In 2016, Mackwell was honored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) with the naming of main-belt asteroid 5292 Mackwell (formerly designated as 1991 AJ1). It is a fitting honor for Mackwell, who is a valued steward of the science community and known for his studies of the deformation of rocks and minerals at high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, relevant to the lithospheres and interiors of the terrestrial planets.
Hitoshi Shiozawa and Minoru Kizawa originally discovered asteroid 5292 Mackwell on January 12, 1991, in Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. 5292 Mackwell has an absolute magnitude of 11.9 and is part of the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of planets Mars and Jupiter.