Kirby Runyon (Lead) is a planetary geologist focused on surface geology. His fascination with space began in the cornfields of southern Michigan, inspired by Star Trek and visits to space and science museums. Known as the “space guy,” he pursued his passion to become a planetary geologist, earning his PhD at Johns Hopkins University and joining NASA’s New Horizons mission. In 2015, he was among the first to discover Pluto’s mountains and glaciers, transforming it from a fuzzy dot into a vibrant and strange new world. Now with the Planetary Science Institute, Kirby balances NASA-funded planetary research with public speaking and coaching Zero-G flights. As he passionately explores the cosmos, his greatest joy comes from sharing the Universe with curious minds.

Susan Sakimoto (collaborator) will be leveraging the boulder sizes and positions you’re mapping to model flows. She has 30+ years of experience in terrestrial volcanology and planetary geophysics, particularly in terrestrial fieldwork and remote sensing, Mars laser altimetry mission work, and thermal and computational fluid dynamics modeling of volcanic, hydraulic, and impact processes. She combines 2-D and 3-D thermal and flow models with fieldwork and experiments to model volcanic and other planetary flow and cooling processes. Susan is a research scientist at the Space Science Institute and advises graduate students through the University of Buffalo.