Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Brent Garry is a geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where he studies lava flows and volcanoes on Earth and compares them to similar features on the Moon and Mars. He earned degrees in geology from The College of William and Mary (B.S.), the University of Kentucky (M.S.), and the University at Buffalo (Ph.D.). He then held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from 2006-2010, after which he worked at the Planetary Science Institute for two years, and then moved to NASA. From 2008-2011, as a member of NASA’s Desert RATS team, Brent lived in prototype space vehicles for up to two weeks at a time during simulated missions to the lunar surface and asteroids. Brent has conducted fieldwork in Iceland, Hawaii, New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon, and Belize; served as editor for the GSA special volume Analogs for Planetary Exploration; and was selected as a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Dawn and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions. Outside the office, Brent enjoys running and scuba diving.