2013 Distinguished Explorer Announced

John Grotzinger - Team Pic | NASA Curiosity Rover LandingDr. John Grotzinger, the lead scientist for the Mars Curiosity expedition will visit Beloit early next year to receive the Roy Chapman Andrews Society’s Distinguished Explorer Award.

This presentation marks the second time the Beloit-based organization has celebrated explorations on Mars. In 2006 the Society recognized the work of Dr. Steve Squyers, principal investigator for explorations conducted using the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity.


Media Mentions:

The Washington Post

Curiosity’s five-year journey across Mars — in one stunning photo
The Washington Post
By Avi Selk, Feb. 3, 2018

Distinguished Explorer Presentation

  • Friday, February 1st, 2013
  • 4:30 pm
  • Eaton Chapel, Beloit College
  • FREE!  (bring the kids!)

School Program:

10:30 a.m.
Beloit Memorial High School

Roy Chapman Andrews Society School Program

Who’s got six wheels, a laser and is now on the Red Planet?
Me. I’m Curiosity, aka the Mars Science Laboratory rover.

John Grotzinger | Mars Curiosity RoverNASA’s Curiosity Rover Explores Mars

After a long journey and a complex and nerve-wracking landing, the SUV-size Curiosity is exploring Mars and making new discoveries every day. It is now scooping up dirt samples, using X-rays and lasers to identify the minerals in Martian soil. It is also starting to analyze the Martian air and will soon start drilling into rocks as it drives to a mountain that is almost three and a half miles high.

The one-ton Curiosity has been described as “a six-wheeled geochemistry lab and the most sophisticated machine ever sent to another planet.”

Updates on Curiosity are posted on the Mars Science Laboratory website and on Curiosity’s Twitter feed, @MarsCuriosity.

Professional Background

Dr. Grotzinger is a geologist who studies the early history of Earth and other planets. He is a professor of geology at the California Institute of Technology. Before moving to Caltech he was professor of earth sciences and director of the Earth Resources Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Among his honors and awards, he has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, received the National Science Foundation’s Young Investigator Award, the Fred Donath Medal from the Geological Society of America, the Henno Martin Medal from the Geological Society of Namibia, and the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal from the National Academy of Sciences

Nasa's Mars Science Lab Website

The Essential Earth | John Grotzinger
Understanding Earth | John Grotzinger