Dr. Ashley Murphy
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Currently resides in CA
Targets of Interest: Earth, Mars, Moon
Disciplines/Techniques: Astrobiology, Field Work, Geochemistry, Geology, Mineralogy, Optical Microscopy, Petrology, Raman Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, X-ray spectroscopy
Missions: Mars 2020
Mission Roles: SHERLOC Science Payload Uplink Lead, SHERLOC Campaign Implementation Representative, Documentarian
Ashley Murphy's graduate research focused on identifying and characterizing microbial and mineralogical biosignatures in dolomitized carbonate rocks. She is currently a collaborator on the Mars 2020 SHERLOC instrument team, and her role focuses on connecting fine-scale WATSON images and SHERLOC Raman data to other rover- and orbital-derived data to reconstruct the geologic history of Jezero crater, Mars. Ashley is also using terrestrial analogues and Raman spectroscopic studies to improve the interpretation of rover-derived data. Ashley's research focuses on Raman spectroscopy of minerals and organics, including organic carbon geothermometry. Ashley's current interests include analyzing microbialites, coals, minerals, and meteorites to better understand how structural and compositional differences, environmental settings, and excitation wavelength influence Raman spectra.
