Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave 3-234
Cambridge MA 02139
USA
Ordinary Academicians
Maria Zuber is the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and presidential advisor for science and technology policy at MIT, tracking trends and seizing opportunities to inform and advance enlightened state and federal policy. She also provides strategic direction to campus labs, centers, and initiatives connected to defense or national security and represents MIT with external stakeholders.
Zuber served as vice president for research from 2013 to 2024, and was responsible for research administration and policy, research relationships with the federal government, and oversight of MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers. In that role, she led the team that developed and provided oversight for MIT's Climate Action Plan.
Zuber’s research bridges planetary geophysics and the technology of space-based laser and radio systems. Since 1990, she has held leadership roles associated with scientific experiments or instrumentation on ten NASA missions, most notably serving as principal investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. Zuber currently serves as Chair of the Standing Review Board of NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission.
Zuber holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an Sc.M. and Ph.D. from Brown. She has won numerous awards, including the MIT James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor the MIT faculty bestows to one of its own. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society, and the American
Geophysical Union. In 2019, she was awarded the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Zuber is the first woman to lead a science department at MIT and the first to lead a NASA planetary mission.
In 2013, President Obama appointed her to the National Science Board, and in 2018 she was reappointed by President Trump. She served as Board Chair from 2016-2018. In 2021, President Biden named her as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Ramanna, K., N. Angel, M. Wang and M.T. Zuber, Accelerating the implementation of accurate product-level carbon accounting, submitted to PNAS, 2025.
Gannon, J.C., R.A. Meserve and M.T. Zuber, Reconsidering research security, Issues in Science and Technology 41, no. 2 (Winter 2025): 90–93. https://doi.org/10.58875/ONGA4344
Adamala, K.P., D. Agashe, Y. Belkaid, D. de C. Bittencourt, Y. Cai, M.W. Chang, G.M. Church, V.S. Cooper, M.W. Davis, N.K. Devaraj, D. Endy, K.M. Estvelt, J.I. Glass, T.W. Hand, T.V. Inglesby, F.J. Isaacs, W.G. James, J.D.G. Jones, M.S. Kay, R.E. Lenski, C. Liu, R. Medzhitov, M.L. Nicotra, S.B. Oehm, J. Pannu, D.A. Relman, P. Schwille, J.A. Smith, H. Suga, J.W. Szostak, N.J. Talbot, J.M. Tiedje, J.C. Venter, G. Winter, W. Zhang, X. Zhu and M.T. Zuber, Confronting the unprecedented risks of mirror life, Science, 386, 1351-1353, doi: 20.2236/science.ads9158, 2024.
Zuber, M.T., Advancing sustainability with space technology, submitted to Pontifical Acad. Sci. Bienneal Plenary, Science for Sustainability and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene: Opportunities, Challenges and AI, 2024.
Citron, R.I., D.E. Smith, S.T. Stewart, L.L. Hood and M.T. Zuber, The South Pole-Aitken Basin: Constraints on impact excavation, melt, and ejecta, Geophys. Res. Lett., 51, doi: 10.1029/2024 gl110034,2024.
Ramirez-Colon, J.L, E. Johnson, D. Duzdevich, S. Lee, J. Soderblom. M.T. Zuber, M. Taniguchi, T. Ohshiro, Y. Komoto, C.E. Carr, Nanogap, single-molecule detection and Mars, Europa and microgravity conditions, IEEE Aerospace, paper 2836, doi: 10.1101/2024.02.29.5823592024, 2-9 March 2024.
Walker, R.T., M.K. Barker, E. Mazarico, X. Sun, G.A. Neumann, D.E. Smith, M.T. Zuber and J.W. Head, Near-infrared photometry of the Moon’s surface with passive radiometry from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), Planet. Sci. Jour., 5, doi: 10.3487/PSJ/ad4467, 2024.
Smith, D.E., S. Goossens, G.A. Neumann and M.T. Zuber, Constraining the structure under lunar impact basins with gravity, Planet. Sci. Jour., 4, doi: 10.3847/PSJ/acfcac, 2023.
Carr, C.E., J.L. Ramirez-Colon, D. Duzdevich, S. Lee, M. Taniguchi, T. Ohshiro, Y. Komoto, J.M. Soderblom and M.T. Zuber, Solid state single molecule detection of life as we know it or don’t know it, Astrobiol., 23, doi: 10.1089/ast.2022.0119, 2023.
Weiss, B.P., L.T. Elkins-Tanton, C.A. Polanskey, B.G. Bills, P. Brauer, M. de Soria Santacruz-Pich, J.L. Jorgensen, C. Maurel, J.M.G. Merayo, R. Oran, R.S. Park, C.A. Raymond, J.B. Ream, C.T. Russell, M.A. Wieczorek and M.T. Zuber, The Psyche magnetometry investigation, submitted to Space Sci. Rev., 2022.
Smith, D.E., V. Viswanathan, E. Mazarico, S. Goossens, J.W. Head, G.A. Neumann and M.T. Zuber, The contribution of small impact craters to lunar polar wander, Plan. Sci. Jour., 3, doi:// 10.3847/PSJ/ac8c39, 2022.
Genova, A., D.E. Smith, R. Canup, T. Hurford, S. Goossens, E. Mazarico, G.A. Neumann, M.T. Zuber, F. Nimmo, M. Wieczorek and E. Biefhaus, Geodetic investigations of the mission concept MAGIC to reveal Callisto’s internal structure, Acta Astronautica, 195, 68-76, doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.02.013 2022.
Zuber, M.T., R.S. Park, L.T. Elkins-Tanton, J. Bell, K.N. Bruvold, D. Bercovici, B.R. Bills. R.P. Binzel, R, Jaumann, S. Marchi, C.A. Polanskey, C.A. Raymond, T. Roatsch, C.C. Wang, B.P. Weiss and M.A. Wieczorek, The Psyche gravity investigation, Space Sci. Rev., 218, doi: 10.1007/s11214-022-00905-3, 2022.
Jaumann, R., J. Bell, C.A. Polanskey, C.A. Raymond, D. Bercovici, B.R. Bills, W. Bottke, J.M. Christoph, S. Marchi, A. Neesemann, K. Otto, R.S. Park, F. Preusker, T. Roatsch, D.A. Williams, M.A. Wieczorek and M.T. Zuber, The Psyche Topography and Geomorphology Investigation, Space Sci. Rev., 218, doi: 10.1007/s11214-022-00874-7, 2022.
Oran, R., B.P. Weiss, M.DeS. Santacruz-Pich, I. Jun, D.J. Lawrence, C. Polanskey, M. Ratliff, J.B. Ream, C.T. Russell, Y. Sphrits, M.T. Zuber and L.T. Elkins-Tanton, Maximum energies of trapped particles around magnetized planets and small bodies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 49, doi: 10.1029/2021GL097014. 2022.
Elkins,-Tanton, K.T., E. Asphaug, J. Bell, W. Bottke, Lawrence, S. Marchi, L. McCoy, Merayo, R.S. Park, P. Peplowski, T.H. Prettyman, B.P. Weiss, M.A. Wievzorek and M.T. Zuber, Distinguishing the origin of (16) Psyche, Space Sci. Rev., 218, doi: 10.1007/s11214-022-00880-9, 2022.
Miljković, K., M.A. Wieczorek, M. Laneuville, A. Nemchin, P.A. Bland and M.T. Zuber, Cryptic impact cratering during lunar magma ocean solidification, Nature Comm., 12, 5433-, doi: 10. 1038/s41467-021-25818-7, 2021.
Sun, X., D.R. Cremons, E. Mazarico, G. Yang, J.B. Abshire, D.E. Smith, M.T. Zuber, M. Storm, N. Martin, J. Hwang, J.D. Beck, N.R. Huntoon and D.M. Rawlings, Small all-range lidar for asteroid and comet core missions, Sensors, 21, 3061, doi: 10.3390/s21093081, 2021.
Barker, M.K., E. Mazarico, G.A. Neumann, D.E., Smith, M.T. Zuber and J.W. Head, Improved LOLA elevation maps for south pole landing sites: Error estimates and their impact on illumination conditions, Planet. Space Sci., 203, doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2020.105119. 2021.
Mojarro, A., L. Jin, J.W. Shostak, J.W. Head III and M.T. Zuber, In search of the RNA world on Mars, Geobiol., 19, 306-321, doi: 10.1111/fbi.12433, 2021.
Ding, M., J.M. Soderblom, C.J. Bierson and M.T. Zuber, Investigating the influences of crustal thickness and temperature on the uplift of mantle materials beneath large impact craters on the Moon, J. Geophys. Res.-- Planets, 125, doi: 19.1029/2020JE006533, 2021.
Bryan, N.C., F. Lebreton, M. Gilmore, G. Ruvkun, M.T. Zuber and C.E. Carr, Genomic and functional characterization of Enterococcus faecalis isolates recovered from the International Space Station and their potential for pathogenicity, Frontiers: Microbiology of Extreme and Human-Made Confined Environments, 11, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.515319, 2021.
Deutch, J.M. and M.T. Zuber, How to start governing R&D to mitigate solar radiation, Issues in Sci. and Tech. January 14, 2021.
Mazarico, E., X. Sun, J.-M. Torre, C. Courde, J. Chabe, M. Aimar, H. Mariey, N. Maurice, M.K. Barker, D. Mao, D.R. Cremons, S. Bouquillon, T. Carlucci, V. Viswanathan, F.G. Lemoine, A. Bourgoin, P. Exertier, G.A. Neumann, M.T. Zuber and D.E. Smith, First two-way laser ranging to a lunar orbiter: Infrared observations from the Grasse station to LRO’s retro-reflector array, Earth, Planets and Space, 72:113, doi: 10.1186/s40623-020-01243-w, 2020.