Mia Mace

My scientific research interests lie within the domain of numerical modelling of planetary ring systems. My PhD work focussed on writing codes to simulate and analyse the dynamics of charged dust grains in Saturn’s rings in response to questions of ring rain and spokes.

I joined the SETI Institute in 2022 as Planetary Astronomer and Associate Deputy Manager for the Ring-Moon Systems Node of NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) – a long-term public archive of digital data products returned from NASA’s planetary missions and from other flight and ground-based observations, including laboratory experiments. In order to ensure the usefulness and usability of data sets by the worldwide community, the PDS is implemented as a set of distributed archives with different "nodes" managing repositories for this federated system, so that scientists specialising in particular disciplines are involved in, and develop, the archiving and curation process, as well as the development of tools for data search/analysis/visualisation, and planning observations. The Ring-Moon Systems Node is responsible for the preservation, curation, and distribution of scientific data sets related to the outer planets, including their rings and moons, and the ways they interact.

Additionally, I explore art and printmaking – having completed an Art Foundation Degree (Exeter College, UK) and various printmaking courses at Spike Print Studios (Bristol, UK), alongside my ongoing practice – some of which can be found at www.mace-space.com.