Francis McCubbin

Francis McCubbin is the Astromaterials Curator at NASA's Johnson Space Center. His current research interests have primarily focused on determining the abundances and roles of volatiles (H₂O, F, Cl, S, C) in magmatic systems within terrestrial planetary bodies, including Earth, Moon, Mars, and asteroids. This work is accomplished through a combination of experimental petrology, micro-beam sample analysis techniques, and crystal-chemical modeling of volatile-bearing mineral phases (e.g., apatite and amphibole). His additional research interests include the nature and composition of the mercurian surface and its relation to the thermal and magmatic evolution of Mercury, habitability of the martian surface and near subsurface, crystallography and crystal chemistry of phosphates and their roles during igneous crystallization and hydrothermal processes, and phase equilibria of martian, lunar, and terrestrial basalt compositions.