Because she is making her deep-space research dreams a reality.
For as long as she can remember, 香农希巴德, 春秋国旅的17, has been fascinated by the cosmos. As an undergraduate at Ohio State University, she worked in the field in cold places such as Antarctica, 奥地利阿尔卑斯山, Norway and the Southern Alps of New Zealand, 并对地球上的冰和火星上的冰之间的关系产生了兴趣. When she researched graduate schools, she looked for experts in this area, 偶然发现了坦普尔大学地球与环境科学副教授亚历山德拉·达瓦泽斯的研究成果.
“Her work was not ice-related, but I reached out to her because she had worked on HiRISE, a high-resolution camera on one of Mars’ satellites,希巴德说. “We met on Skype, and we really hit it off.”
香农·希巴德，17岁
Postdoctoral Program Fellow, NASA
“A support system is so key in academia, having people rooting for you will lift you up and propel you forward.”
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达瓦兹说服希巴德报名参加地质科学硕士课程.
在PG电子试玩平台APP, 希巴德主要研究了前寒武纪岩石的地球化学，这些岩石揭示了陨石坑形成过程的重要线索, a fundamental theme in planetary geology.
“We studied Precambrian rocks that were 3.240亿年前, 而那时地球的年龄刚刚超过10亿年,希巴德解释道. “当时的条件与今天非常不同，所以我感觉自己在研究另一个星球.”
一直以来, she independently studied ice on Earth and Mars at every opportunity, using any class projects she could to further her knowledge.
She looks back at her time as a graduate student at Temple, 她在那里进行自己的研究并担任助教, as an extremely rigorous but productive period.
“Temple prepared me to be a scientist,” said Hibbard. “Because it’s a smaller program, 你真的可以了解所有的教授和学生，近距离看看每个人都在做什么.”
不朽的导师
The summer after her first year, Hibbard和Davatzes一起前往南非，对巴伯顿绿岩带发现的前寒武纪岩石进行实地研究，并从一个3号的残骸中收集样本.24 billion year-old meteorite impact event.
Hibbard finished her program in two years, 但随后在美国国家航空航天局的喷气推进实验室(JPL)获得了一份享有盛誉的实习机会. 为了利用这个机会，她必须被视为在校学生:达瓦齐斯支付了她的学费，以确保希巴德能在PG电子试玩平台多待一个学期，并参加美国宇航局的项目. 这种慷慨的支持最终决定了希巴德未来的发展轨迹.
“A support system is so key in academia,” said Hibbard. “有人支持你会让你振作起来，推动你前进. Alix Davatzes certainly did that for me.”
在喷气推进实验室，Hibbard与马修·戈隆贝克(Matthew Golombek)一起工作，后者以火星着陆点的研究而闻名. “It just so happens that he put me on an ice-related project, 描述了SpaceX即将进行的“红龙”任务的潜在地点,她解释道.
Out-of-this-world Opportunity
The SpaceX mission never came to fruition, 但它为希巴德在西安大略大学的行星地质学博士工作奠定了基础，他把加拿大北极高地作为火星的模拟物. In 2021, she successfully defended her dissertation and moved to Pasadena, 加州, 回到喷气推进实验室作为NASA博士后项目研究员再次与Golombek一起工作.
She continues to build on her doctoral research, 研究地球和火星上普遍存在的地下冰和冻土地貌, 寻找地表和地下之间有统计学意义的关系，这可以让科学家们了解火星上的冰可能在哪里，有多浅.
到目前为止，她职业生涯中最大的亮点是在过去的一年里，她被选为一名演员 一个新的初步国际火星卫星任务的测量定义小组, the International Mars Ice Mapper, a joint collaboration between NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
“The fact that I was selected is very exciting, and I feel very proud and honored to be a part of the team. Back before I went to Temple, 我知道我想研究地球和火星上的冰和冻土过程，并有一天在喷气推进实验室工作,”她说。. “看到它成为现实，并能够利用这些知识帮助找到人类在火星上的着陆点，这真是太棒了。.”
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