Bethany Ehlmann named director of CU Boulder’s LASP

April 23, 2025—The University of Colorado Boulder has appointed Bethany Ehlmann as the new director of its Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Founded a decade before NASA in 1948 under a different name, LASP is the only research institute in the world that has sent scientific instruments to every planet in the solar system, plus the sun and a host of moons.

Ehlmann will be the first woman to lead LASP, and only its third director, following Charles Barth, who served from 1965-1992, and Dan Baker, who served from 1994-2024.

Ehlmann is currently a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and director of Caltech’s Keck Institute for Space Studies. She will begin her role as LASP’s director on Sept. 1, 2025. Ehlmann will also hold the roles of provost chair in the Research and Innovation Office, professor of Geological Sciences and affiliate professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences.

“We are honored to welcome Dr. Ehlmann, an accomplished scientist, scholar, and leader, to the University of Colorado Boulder,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for Research and Innovation and Dean of the Institutes. “Dr. Ehlmann’s expertise and compelling vision will be invaluable for LASP as it carries forward CU Boulder’s legacy as a leading institution in the space sciences.”

“It’s an honor to be appointed to lead such a distinguished institution as LASP, with its long history of innovation in the space sciences,” said Ehlmann. “I’m excited to embrace this opportunity to work alongside LASP’s dedicated employees and leadership team to advance LASP’s mission and vision and to help guide this renowned institution into the future.”

Ehlmann’s research focuses on water in the solar system, the evolution of habitable worlds and remote sensing techniques and instruments for planetary missions. She is a science team member of multiple missions, including the Earth-orbiting EMIT imaging spectrometer; the Jupiter-bound Europa Clipper, which carries the LASP-built Europa Surface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) instrument; the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover; the Mars2020 Perseverance rover; and the upcoming ExoMars rover. She is the principal investigator of Lunar Trailblazer, a NASA small satellite mission to study water on the moon that launched earlier this year.

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder is revolutionizing human understanding of the cosmos. LASP is deeply committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of space explorers. From enabling the first exploratory rocket measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere to trailblazing observations of every planet in the solar system, LASP is at the forefront of solar, planetary, and space physics research, space-weather monitoring, and the search for evidence of habitable worlds.