2025 Amelia Earhart Fellow

Lisette Melendez is a planetary geologist and Ph.D. candidate in planetary science at Purdue University. She conducts her research in the Laboratory Studies of the Evolution of Airless Planetary Surfaces (LEAPS), under the advisement of Dr. Michelle Thompson. Her work focuses on understanding how the surfaces of hydrated, carbon-rich asteroids are altered by space weathering processes, including micrometeoroid impacts and solar wind irradiation.

Space weathering plays a critical role in shaping the optical properties of airless bodies, which affects how scientists interpret data from remote sensing missions, our primary method for studying solar system objects. Ms. Melendez uses coordinated laboratory techniques to analyze asteroid samples at the micron scale, including electron microscopy, x-ray computed tomography and nano-infrared spectroscopy. Her research involves materials returned from two major space missions: asteroid Ryugu samples from JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission and asteroid Bennu samples from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.

Ms. Melendez earned her Bachelor of Science in geology with a minor in astronomy from the University of South Florida. As an undergraduate, she interned with NASA, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Brown University, working on projects that ranged from asteroid geology and Martian surface processes to echinoderm fossils. She also contributed to the digital preservation of Florida's natural history and archaeological collections at the USF Library and Institute for Digital Exploration.

Outside of the lab, Ms. Melendez enjoys studying art history, traveling to new countries and curating personal collages from her collection of travel mementos, tickets and keepsakes.