Matthew Chojnacki joined LPL in January 2013, working as a post-doctoral fellow for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) with that camera’s Principle Investigator Alfred McEwen. There he has been working on projects involving the geologic, morphologic, and climatic evolutions of Mars. Specifically, quantify and characterizing contemporary aqueous and aeolian transport on the Martian surface as detected with paired HiRISE images.  Additionally, he works with HiRISE targeting specialists in imaging sites of geologic interest to maximize the science return of the MRO mission. Matt also participates with two other NASA spacecraft instrument teams, with the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) onboard Mars Odyssey (MO) satellite and Panoramic Camera (Pancam) onboard the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER).

Originally from Colorado, Matt grew up in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, where he was introduced to geology and snow skiing. Prior to graduate school, Matt held a successful career on the United States Ski Team, where he competed in the acrobatic discipline of freestyle aerial ski jumping. He traveled the world participating in three World Championships, one Olympics, and collected multiple National and International titles including a Guinness World Record for difficulty. Matt received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Planetary Geology from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2013.