Faculty Directory

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2012
• B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008
  
   

BACKGROUND

Christine Hartzell is a Minta Martin Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland and the director of ASTRA-UMD, UMD’s newly started center for space exploration research. Her research seeks to elucidate the fundamental physics of granular systems that will enable key space exploration technologies. She is particularly interested in the evolution of the surfaces of airless planetary bodies (like asteroids and the Moon), the behavior of granular materials, and the detection of sub-cm orbital debris. She is a Participating Scientist on the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, and was involved with the OSIRIS-REx mission and the Janus mission. Asteroid 9319 was named “Hartzell” in recognition of her contributions to the field of asteroid science. Prior joining the faculty at UMD, Dr. Hartzell was a Keck Institute for Space Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech. She completed her PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder and received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech.

HONORS AND AWARDS

• NASA Planetary Science Division Early Career Award
• Asteroid 9319 named "Hartzell" in recognition of contributions to asteroid science
• Keck Institute for Space Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship
• NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
• Amelia Earhart Fellowship

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
• American Astronautical Society (AAS) Division for Planetary Science (DPS)
• American Geophysical Union (AGU)