Peter B. James, Ph.D.

Planetary geophysicist Peter B. James, Ph.D., associate professor of geosciences, was named Baylor University’s Newsmaker of the Year award for 2019-2020 for his breakthrough discovery of an enormous mass buried beneath the Moon’s largest crater. The research made worldwide news in June 2019 and advanced the understanding of how catastrophic impact events have shaped all of the rocky planets and moons seen today.

Published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, James’ research revealed a deep structure buried under the South Pole-Aitken basin, possibly remnants of an asteroid’s metal core from a 4-billion-year-old impact. Using NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, James and the research team found a mass so large it could weigh down the basin floor by half a mile. This finding offered critical insight into planetary formation and made the basin one of the foremost natural laboratories for studying catastrophic impacts that shaped the solar system.

The results of this study were featured in top media outlets, among them Astronomy, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, CNN, FOX Newsand many more. The news coverage reached an international audience of readers and viewers, making James a worthy recipient of the 2019-2020 Baylor’s Newsmaker of the Year award.

James is a nationally recognized planetary geophysicist who has worked alongside NASA during numerous missions. As founder of Baylor’s Planetary Research Group, James is a consummate mentor to undergraduate and graduate students, frequently promoting his students’ abilities to contribute to NASA projects.  

ABOUT PETER B. JAMES, PH.D.

Peter B. James, Ph.D., associate professor of planetary geophysics at Baylor University, served on the science team of three NASA missions: the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), and the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission. In 2025, he was selected to serve on NASA’s South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return and eXploration (SPARX) Science Definition Team (SDT) that will shape the goals and design of a future lunar mission. James is the founder of Baylor’s Planetary Research Group, which pursues research with spacecraft data to study the crusts and mantles of planets and moons in the solar system. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.