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About

Lauren DeFlores is a planetary scientist whose career spans some of NASA's most ambitious Mars exploration missions. Her research centers on Mars geochemistry, instrument development, and the search for habitable environments on the Red Planet. DeFlores made an early landmark contribution through her work on the Phoenix lander mission, co-authoring the landmark 2009 study detecting perchlorate in Martian soil — a discovery that fundamentally reshaped our understanding of Martian surface chemistry and has since accumulated over 1,100 citations, making it one of the most influential findings in Mars science. Building on this foundation, DeFlores became deeply involved in the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover program, contributing to both the SuperCam instrument suite (322 citations) and the SHERLOC investigation (237 citations) — a UV Raman and fluorescence spectrometer designed to detect organics and biosignatures in Martian geology. Her technical contributions extend to SHERLOC's processing electronics and its calibration target system, which notably incorporates materials supporting future human exploration planning. Across her career, DeFlores exemplifies the rare researcher who bridges cutting-edge instrument engineering with transformative planetary science discovery, leaving a measurable imprint on humanity's ongoing search for life beyond Earth.