Tanya Harrison

At the age of five, Harrison watched Big Bird in Japan and became interested in space.[1] She joined the Seattle chapter of Mars Society, and attended the 3rd International Mars Society Conference in Toronto.[1]

Harrison completed her bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics at the University of Washington in 2006, before a masters degree in earth and environmental sciences at Wesleyan University in 2008.[2][3] Harrison completed her PhD at the University of Western Ontario's Centre for Planetary Science and Space Exploration in 2016 while working under the direction of Gordon Osinski and Livio Tornabene.[4] Alongside her postgraduate studies, Harrison worked as a public outreach assistant.[5]

'Mount Sharp' Inside Gale Crater, Mars, created by Tanya Harrison.

Harrison's research is in Martian geomorphology and terrestrial analogues, spectroscopy and glaciology.[2]

In 2008, Harrison became Assistant Staff Scientist at Malin Space Science Systems, after receiving a NASA scholarship.[6] She worked on the science operation team for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.[2] She also worked for the Mars Color Imager, the Mast Cameras and Mars Hand Lens Imager.[6] During this time, Harrison worked on science track programming for Norwescon.[7] Between 2010 and 2012, Harrison worked at The Planetary Society as web editor.[5] In 2011, Harrison was part of the team that won the NASA Group Achievement Award for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.[8] She won a second in 2013 as part of the Mars Science Laboratory Mast Camera team.[8]

Harrison is a recipient of the Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellowship[9] (awarded twice), the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship,[10] and Geological Society of America On to the Future Award, among others.[11] She worked as a research assistant in the Centre for Planetary Science & Exploration at the University of Western Ontario.[12][13]

In 2016, she won the Geological Society of America Paul Pellas-Ryder Award.[8] That year she became a postdoctoral scholar and director of research of the NewSpace Initiative at Arizona State University.[14][5] She worked with commercial space companies (including Blue Origin and Bigelow Aerospace).[1][15] Harrison has cited NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission as one of her biggest inspirations.[16] She was selected for Planet's Science Ambassadors program for her work on gullies on Devon Island, Canada, as an analogue for Martian gullies.[17]

In 2017, Harrison joined a flight of scientists to watch the total solar eclipse from an airplane.[18][19][20] She is also a professional photographer.[21] Harrison has been involved with The Mars Society, National Space Society and Girl Scouts.[22] She has contributed to New Scientist, Gizmodo, The Weather Network and Slate.[23][24][25][26] Harrison has spoken of her struggles with harassment in the STEM workplace.[27] She regularly appears in the public discussion of astronomy.[28][29][30]