Planetary Science

John Mulchaey, Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair and Director of the Carnegie Observatories Director, joined the Institution as a Staff Scientist in 1999. He was named Director in 2015. Mulchaey is renowned astronomer, well-regarded for his work on groups and clusters of galaxies—most of which, including our own Milky Way, exist collectively. He is also the Institution's Deputy for Science.

Experimental petrologist Michael Walter became Director of the recently formed Carnegie Earth & Planets Laboratory in 2022, where he was previously Deputy Director. His recent research focuses on the period early in Earth’s history, shortly after the planet accreted from the cloud of gas and dust surrounding our young Sun, when the mantle and the core first separated into distinct layers.

Alycia Weinberger is an observational astronomer interested in planet formation, exoplanets, and brown dwarfs. She explores the early history of planets and how they interact with their natal environment, the circumstellar disk. She studies how material is distributed in disks, how disks dissipate, and how the compositions of disks may translate into those of planets. As Associate Division Director she works closely with Director Michael Walter to help set and execute the overall scientific and cultural vision for EPL, manages the postdoctoral fellows program, and oversees the division's colloquium and EPIIC programs.