Rate My Professor Carol Paty

Carol Paty is a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon, where she teaches and mentors graduate and undergraduate students in planetary and space science. As a planetary and space physicist, she specializes in studying ice giant magnetospheres, moon-magnetosphere interactions, and icy moon interiors using numerical simulations and spacecraft observations. She earned a B.A. in Physics and Astronomy from Bryn Mawr College in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Earth and Space Sciences from the University of Washington in 2006. After her doctorate, Paty completed postdoctoral work with the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer team at the Southwest Research Institute. She then held a faculty position for ten years in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she developed a planetary sciences focus and founded the Center for Space Technology and Research, bridging interests between the colleges of science and engineering. Additionally, she completed a six-year appointment in the Clark Honors College, serving three years as Associate Dean for Faculty, contributing to curriculum revision and implementation, and developing the Calderwood Seminars for Public Writing.

Paty is a co-investigator on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, providing models to contextualize and interpret data from instruments that quantify Jupiter’s magnetic field influence on Europa’s subsurface ocean, helping assess ocean depth, salinity, and ice shell thickness to evaluate habitability. She also supports ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) and participated in the Trident Phase A Discovery study and the Neptune Odyssey mission concept study for the Neptune-Triton system. Currently, she serves on the steering committee of the Outer Planets Assessment Group and previously contributed to a National Academies panel for the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. Her key publications include “Science Overview of the Europa Clipper Mission” (Space Science Reviews, 2024), “Exploring the Interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper” (Space Science Reviews, 2023), “Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-Surface (REASON)” (Space Science Reviews, 2024), “Magnetic Induction Responses of Jupiter’s Ocean Moons Including Effects from Adiabatic Convection” (Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2021), and “Diurnal and Seasonal Variability of Uranus’s Magnetosphere” (Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2017).