ITHACA, N.Y. -- Two Cornell University researchers, Robert J. Sullivan Jr., research associate in space sciences, and Harry Stewart, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, have been named by NASA as members of the science team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. Sullivan and Stewart will collaborate in an examination of the physical properties of Martian soils, using instruments aboard the two rover vehicles that will explore the Martian surface.

The researchers' proposal was one of 28 selected from more than 80 submitted to NASA last December. The MER mission, scheduled for launch in mid-2003, involves two identical rovers. They will arrive at separate destinations on Mars early in 2004.

These next-generation rovers will have greater mobility than the Pathfinder rover that explored the Martian surface in 1997. They will be able to journey about 110 yards a day across the planet's surface, each carrying a sophisticated set of instruments, dubbed Athena, that will allow them to search for evidence of liquid water. Steven Squyres, Cornell professor of astronomy, serves as the principal investigator for the Athena package.

In addition, MER scientists will determine the distribution and composition of minerals, rocks and soils surrounding the landing sites. They will study the surface geology for clues about environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present and whether conditions were conducive for life. Sullivan will work primarily with the MER mission office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Stewart will conduct soil analysis at Cornell.

Sullivan's research interests include studying Martian drifts and dunes, dust avalanches and landslide scars. He also conducts research on asteroid geology, tectonics and ridge formation on Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, Europa. He has been the principal investigator for the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program since 1998, and he was a participating scientist in the Mars Pathfinder mission. Growing up in Sherborn, Mass., Sullivan earned his bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1984 and obtained both his master's degree (1987) and his doctorate (1992) in geology from Arizona State University. Stewart is also director of the Civil Infrastructure Laboratory at Cornell's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has taught geo-technical engineering, which includes soil dynamics, soil behavior, foundation engineering, laboratory testing, buried conduits, slope stability and instrumentation. Stewart's research has focused on soil-structure interaction, soil dynamics and earthquake engineering, the cyclic behavior of soils under both laboratory and field conditions, blasting effects on structures and railroad track performance. He has directed several research projects on the testing of foundations and pipelines.

Stewart grew up in Elmira, N.Y. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the State University of New York at Brockport (1973), a bachelor's degree in chemical civil engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1978) and his master's degree (1979) and doctorate (1982) from the University of Massachusetts.

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