Dr. Ricardo Arevalo Jr. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at UMD, and Director of the M-CLASS Laboratory. He has expertise in the advancement of in situ methods of chemical analysis, particularly: magnetic sector, Orbitrap, time-of-flight, and linear ion trap mass spectrometry; laser ablation and desorption sample processing; and, electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). His scientific research focuses on the analysis of planetary materials (meteorites and analog samples), establishing compositional models of planetary interiors, and characterizing the biosignature preservation potential of different mineral phases. He is the PI of the ICEE 2/CORALS, DALI/CRATER, and PICASSO/Miniature ICPMS investigations, and served as a member of the SAM Science Team and the Product Development Lead (PDL) for the mass spectrometer subsystem of the MOMA instrument on ExoMars. He maintains a role on the MOMA Science Team and the Steering Committee for the NASA Network for Life Detection (NfoLD).

Lucas earned a B.Sc. in Geology and a minor in Chemistry at the University of Florida. Now as a Ph.D. student he is interested in exploring and understanding other planetary bodies in our solar system such as the icy worlds and Earth’s Moon. His research interests include geochemistry, analytical chemistry, petrology, and astrobiology. He is also passionate in learning about spaceflight instrumentation in order to provide in-situ chemical data that will aid in the understanding of the evolution of our solar system’s bodies. Outside of work he likes to go hiking and to weightlift and he hopes to amass the best mineral and rock collection in the laboratory.

Maddy Raith is a first year PhD student at UMD, majoring in geology and minoring in planetary sciences. She is interested in studying planetary geochemistry, mineralogy, and spaceflight instrumentation. She started research with M-Class in Fall 2020 working on laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) to investigate the concentrations of key trace elements in mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB). She has also examined the first-row transition elements to understand the composition of the depleted MORB mantle. Her senior thesis project focused on the mineralogical effects on organic detectability in mars analog sediments from iceland. When she is not in the lab, Maddy enjoys playing ice hockey, baking, and hanging out with her cat Hazel.

Oya Kawashima received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is currently a cross-border postdoc research fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS CPD) and is being trained at ISAS/JAXA and M-CLASS Lab in UMD. He is basically working on the development of space-borne mass spectrometers (e.g., Orbitrap-based instruments such as CRATER and CORALS, TRITON/LUPEX by JAXA, PS/Comet Interceptor by JAXA). His work includes ion trajectory simulations, as well as experimental performance validation. He spends his weekends in the US watching baseball games, playing group sports such as softball, fishing and writing haiku.

Meridian McCall is an undergraduate geology student at the University of Maryland, College Park, graduating in December 2024. She plans to gain industry experience before pursuing further education in planetary Sciences with a focus in geochemistry, astro/exobiology or geophysics. Since joining the UMD M-Class lab in early 2024, she has contributed to projects involving laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS), where her work focuses on analyzing organic materials to quantify detection limits in evaporite minerals. Her senior thesis project focused on the impact of mineralogy on organic detectability in Enceladus analog salts. On her downtime, Meridian is passionate about playing piano, being outdoors and painting, her favorite medium being oil paint.