Mark A. Wieczorek

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Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
Planetary and Space Sciences group

Senior research scientist


About me

My scientific research focuses on deciphering the interior structure and geologic evolution of the terrestrial planets and moons. As a geophysicist, I mostly use planetary topography, gravity, and magnetic field data that have been acquired from orbiting spacecraft, but I also rely on remote sensing data, seismic data, thermal evolution modeling, and impact crater formation models. I have worked with several lunar missions, including NASA’s lunar gravity mapping mission GRAIL and the upcoming Lunar Vertex mission that will investigate one of the largest magnetic anomalies on the Moon. I am also a co-investigator on NASA’s geophysical mission to Mars, Insight, the laser altimeter on ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury, the laser altimeter on the JUICE mission that will investigate the moons of Jupiter, and NASA’s mission to the asteroid 16 Psyche.

I am currently at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, where I have been since 2023. Prior to this I was at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur as a member of the Laboratoire Lagrange (2017-2022), and before this I was the leader of the Planetary and Space Sciences group at IPGP. I was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets from 2011-2015 and I am currently a member of the Icarus editorial advory board. In addition to my scientific activities, I am the lead developer of the shtools software package that is used for analyzing global data expressed in spherical harmonics.

Recent Publications

  1. Surface Waves and Crustal Structure on Mars
    D. Kim, W B Banerdt, S Ceylan, and 42 more authors
    Science, 2022.
  2. The Mantle Viscosity Structure of Venus
    J. S. Maia, M. A. Wieczorek, and A.-C. Plesa
    Geophysical Research Letters, 2023.
  3. InSight Constraints on the Global Character of the Martian Crust
    Mark A. Wieczorek, Adrien Broquet, Scott M. McLennan, and 23 more authors
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2022.
  4. Lunar Magnetism
    Mark A. Wieczorek, Benjamin P. Weiss, Doris Breuer, and 14 more authors
    Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 2023.
  5. Magnetic Signatures of Lunar Impact Craters
    Xi Yang, and Mark Wieczorek
    Icarus, 2024.