Marissa Detschel, graduate student in the Department of Physics, is first author on a research paper recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Luminescence. Detschel conducts research with Ken Lepper, assistant professor of geosciences. The paper is titled, "Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating properties of Martian Sediment Analogue Materials Exposed to a Simulated Martian Solar Spectral environment.”

Detschel constructed a Mars solar simulator here at NDSU and used it to study basic properties of terrestrial minerals that may one day help provide geologic ages for surface features on Mars. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Appalachian State University and has been a student at NDSU since May 2007.

Detschel is planning to present the results of this research at the March 2009 annual meeting of the American Physical Society in Pittsburgh. The work was supported by a grant to Lepper from NASA's Mars Fundamental Research Program.

The paper can be viewed under the "in-press" link from the Journal of Luminescence at www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00222313.