Role
Postdoctoral Researcher
Biography
Benjamin Byron is a postdoctoral researcher with the Planetary Sciences Group at the University of Central Florida. He earned a PhD in Physics from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2020 before becoming a postdoctoral scholar at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research involves using orbital and Earth-based remote sensing observations to interpret the composition and physical properties of airless bodies. More specifically, he has utilized ultraviolet through radar wavelength observations from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and other lunar spacecraft to investigate space weathering and better understand the material properties of the lunar surface. He has also performed thermal modeling to interpret how heat propagation through the lunar regolith is affected by things such as rock abundance and porosity. Before joining the Lunar-VISE team, he was a member of the LRO Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) and Diviner Lunar Radiometer instrument teams.