Ben Weiss appointed Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Benjamin Weiss has been named Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Weiss runs the MIT Planetary Magnetism Laboratory, studying the magnetic signatures of rock samples from Earth, the lunar surface, and meteorites to understand the conditions of the early solar system, as well as the past climates and habitability of Earth and Mars. Weiss is also involved with multiple NASA exploration missions: he is the deputy principal investigator on the Psyche Mission, which launched in October 2023 to study the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, as well as a co-investigator on the Mars 2020 rover and the Europa Clipper missions.
He joined the EAPS faculty in 2004 after completing his PhD at the California Institute of Technology and is currently the Chair of the Program in Planetary Science.
The Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences is named after Robert R. Shrock, a former professor of geology and one of the longest serving department heads in EAPS history. Previous Shrock Professors include Tim Grove and the late Sam Bowring.
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