Sara Shields
2025 LPSC SciAct affiliate
Affiliate bio
Communicating the interdisciplinary nature of planetary science and specifically relating it to my analog research finding connections between Earth and Mars may help individuals from different backgrounds see themselves as contributors to the community, encouraging diverse participation in the field.
Sara Shields
PhD Candidate
University of Tennessee
Sara is a 4th year PhD student in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her research focuses on understanding relationships between biogeochemical cycling, aqueous activity, and climate in arid terrestrial analog environments to assess if similar processes may have occurred on Mars in the past. She works with interdisciplinary teams of geologists, astrobiologists, and hydrologists, using a combination of fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and modeling techniques to investigate these processes.