Roger Wiens is a professor at purdue-university (EAPS) and a principal investigator on the Mars rover supercam LIBS instrument. His Purdue lab built the nickel-rich calibration standards that enabled the 2026 neretva-vallis nickel quantification (see src-perseverance-neretva-nickel-rocks-2026-04); follow-up calibration work was performed at los-alamos-national-laboratory, where Wiens previously held leadership of the SuperCam team.
AbSciCon26 — Mars lava-tube heli-drone proposal
At abscicon26 (May 17–22, 2026), Wiens is the named contact for a proposed heli-drone concept to explore Mars lava-tube caves for biosignatures and habitability (src-abscicon26-media-tips-2-2026-05).