Research.com's 2025 Ranking of Best Scientists in the field of Earth Science has named DEEPS Professor Jim Head #1 in the world ranking and #1 in United States. He has also been awarded the Earth Science Leader Award for 2025.
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Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
James Head
Professor (Research), Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Geological Sciences
Lincoln Field Building
Room 104
Room 104
Research Interests
Planetary Geoscience
Biography
Professor Head studies themes of planetary evolution and the role of volcanism and tectonism in the formation and evolution of planetary crusts. Several research projects are underway in the field in Antarctica, on the Earth's seafloor, and in assessing data from planetary surfaces to study climate change on Mars, volcanism on the Moon, Mars, and Venus, the geology of the surface of Mercury and the tectonic and volcanic evolution of icy satellites.
Recent News
During the 2025 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, researchers, including DEEPS Professor Jim Head, shared how NASA NIAC-funded technologies could enable building and maintaining surface habitats in lunar lava tubes and dike tip voids for long-term human space exploration.
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Sky & Telescope
Icy Rivers May Have Flowed on Ancient Mars
New research led by Peter Buhler from the Planetary Science Institute proposes that a carbon-dioxide ice cap may have acted as an insulating layer on Mars, allowing rivers and a large lake to form in the planet’s southern highlands. DEEPS Professor James Head commented, "Peter Buhler has done a magnificent job of exploring the implications of possible massive atmospheric collapse and CO2 ice accumulation in the south circumpolar region at a critical early time in the history of Mars."
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The endeavour to leverage mycotecture – called the Mycotecture Off Planet Structures at Destination project – has recently been awarded a Phase III contract with NASA, meaning it will receive the funding necessary to continue. The mycotechnology has the support of prominent NASA figures such as DEEPS Professor Jim Head, who once trained astronauts for the Apollo lunar exploration programme, and Apollo 15 commander David Scott.
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Brown Daily Herald
Brown researchers develop new method for mapping the moon’s surface
A new paper published earlier this year by alumn Benjamin Boatwright PhD’22 and Professor James Head PhD’69 proposes new refinement to current imagining technologies using a method they call “shape-from-shading.”
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Scientific American
Moon ‘Spiders’ Suggest Extensive Underground Lunar Caves
In a recent study published in the PLanetary Science Journal, researchers describe an odd surface feature that supports the presence of underground caves termed subsurface voids. DEEPS professor and study co-author James Head indicated that the relatively low lunar gravity likely allowed big bubbles of gas to form in magma, leaving behind subsurface voids.
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