Lynnae Quick

Lynnae C. Quick, Ph.D. is an American planetary geophysicist and Ocean Worlds Planetary Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research centers on theoretical modeling of cryovolcanic processes on the icy moons and dwarf planets in our solar system as well as modeling volcanic activity on Venus and the Moon. Quick is a member of the Dawn, Europa Clipper, and Dragonfly Mission science teams. She is also a member of the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX) team, and a member of NASA's Roadmaps to Ocean Worlds (ROW) team.
Education.
Quick was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina and graduated from James Benson Dudley High School. In high school, she became interested in astronomy after learning about the death of stars and the creation of supermassive black holes. Her high school physics teacher, John M. Brown, encouraged her interests, suggesting she pursue a post-graduate degree in astronomy or astrophysics, and connected her with astrophysicist Reva Williams who also encouraged her to pursue a Ph.D. Quick received her Bachelor of Science degree in physics from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, graduating summa cum laude. As an undergraduate, she was accepted into the Research Experiences for Undergraduates and NASA Academy programs and pursued research at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, respectively. There, she became interested in characterizing exoplanets and in planetary geology. After graduating, she followed this interest to an internship at the Applied Physics Laboratory, with encouragement from astrophysicist Beth A. Brown. There, she spent the summer studying Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.
Quick then attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she received her Master of Science degree in physics with a concentration in astrophysics. There, she pursued research at both the Applied Physics Laboratory, with mentorship from Louise Prockter, and at Goddard Space Flight Center. Quick received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Johns Hopkins University in 2013. While there she was advised by igneous petrologist Bruce D. Marsh and was a Bromery Fellow and an APL Graduate Fellow. Quick specialized in planetary magmatism and volcanology, and her dissertation was entitled "Europa: Cryomagmatic Processes & Cryovolcanic Surface Expressions". As a Bromery Fellowship recipient, Quick had the opportunity to meet Randolph Bromery while pursuing her Ph.D.
Career.
After her completing her doctoral degree, Quick became a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center, studying volcanic domes on Venus and Europa and later expanding her research to include studying cryovolcanic activity on Saturn's moon Enceladus. During that time, she became a co-investigator on the Europa Imaging System, conducting analyses on the moon's geyser-like plumes and beginning her work as a team member on NASA's Europa Mission. Both Europa and Enceladus shoot water through their plumes, which is evidence of an ocean that lies below their icy surfaces. Quick's postdoctoral work centered on characterizing these geologic processes and understanding how they differ across planets and satellites.
Following her postdoctoral fellowship, Quick worked as a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. She then became a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, making her the first African American staff scientist in the Center's history. In May 2019, Quick joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as an Ocean Worlds Planetary Scientist, specializing in the study of ocean worlds in our solar system and beyond. Quick continues her research program studying cryovolcanic activity and other geophysical processes on moons and planets in our own solar system and has expanded that work to study activity in extrasolar planetary systems. She has applied her expertise to characterizing the surface of the crater-laden dwarf planet Ceres, located in our solar system's asteroid belt. Ceres is thought to have once had a global ocean, which is hypothesized to have slowly frozen over time. Quick and her colleagues have found evidence to support this hypothesis, analyzing patterns of spots of varying brightness across Ceres surface, which correspond to pockets of ocean brine under the asteroid's surface that have been exposed by craters. Quick undertook this work as an Associate Scientist on NASA's Dawn Mission.
In 2020, Quick was the lead author on a NASA study that analyzed 53 terrestrial exoplanets that were all of a similar size to Earth. Her team mathematically modeled the geologic activity of these planets by estimating their internal heating rates as a proxy for potential volcanic activity. They compared these estimates, as well as considerations like density and temperature, to Earth as well as Enceladus and Europa, which are known to be ocean worlds, containing significant amounts of water beneath their surfaces. They found that all 53 exoplanets likely have volcanic activity and that more than a quarter of these exoplanets could be ocean worlds — and could thus potentially sustain extraterrestrial life. Future missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, can make more observations of these exoplanets to better understand their geologic activity and look for signs of life. In addition to continuing her work as a team member on NASA's "Europa Clipper" Mission, Quick is also a science team member and Lead for the Student and Early Career Investigator Program on NASA's Dragonfly Mission.
Personal.
Quick is a third generation alum of North Carolina A&T State University. She and her husband, Lamar, live near Washington, DC.