Dr. David Vaniman

Dr. Dave Vaniman is a petrologist/geochemist who studies the mineralogy and mineral chemistry of water-rock interactions. Vaniman was involved with development of the CheMin XRD/XRF concept that began in the early 1990s and evolved into both terrestrial and space applications. His research at PSI is focused on the CheMin X-ray diffraction instrument of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosty. CheMin is a mature and proven robust space instrument that has been in operation at Gale crater since 2011. CheMin determines total mineralogy of a sample, helping constrain phase associations and parageneses of complex rocks. In terrestrial work Vaniman has an early model of a commercial equivalent of the CheMin instrument design, Terra, that he uses to study secondary mineral associations similar to those at Gale crater, particularly the geological settings of Ca- and Mg-sulfate salts that on Mars either transcend or are constrained by the transition from wet to water-starved systems.