About Me
Hello! My name is Henry Manelski. I finished my PhD in planetary science at Purdue University in Spring 2026 and have moved to Germany, where I plan on pursuing a career in planetary spectroscopy at German universities and research institutions. If you are interested in collaborating feel free to reach out! My email is h.manelski@tum.de.
I am interested in using geochemical data collected from the surfaces of rocky planets to better understand their formation and development. My research to date has focuses on the geochemistry of the Moon and Mars using in-situ Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF). I am currently a postdoc at TUM in Munich, where I am using my expertise with lasers to build an experiment to investigate space weathering in volatile-rich lunar regolith. In Fall 2026, I am beginning a Humboldt Fellowship at Universität Münster where I will be working with MERTIS, the thermal infrared spectrometer on the BepiColombo orbiter, set to arrive at Mercury in November 2026.
During my PhD I was a member of the Perseverance Mars rover science team and specialized in the processing and interpretation of spectral data used to quantify the abundance of chemical elements. My technical expertise includes programming (Python, C++), machine learning (Random Forest, Elastic Net, Gradient Boosting), and laboratory skills (lasers, mechano-optics, spectrometers). Previously, I worked with VNIR spectral data from the ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity Mars rover. I graduated with a BSc in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University in 2022.