Rita Parai, associate professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and a faculty fellow in the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences (MCSS), is a plenary speaker at the 2026 Goldschmidt Conference.

Plenary speakers are invited to present to the full conference and highlight major advances in the field. Parai’s selection recognizes her contributions to understanding how noble gases are used to study the formation and evolution of Earth and other planetary bodies.

Her talk, “Snapshots of an evolving planet from noble gases,” will explore how these chemically inert elements serve as tracers of processes deep within the Earth. Because noble gases do not readily react with other elements, they retain signatures of planetary formation and long-term geologic processes.

Parai’s research connects geochemistry with broader questions in planetary science, offering insights into how Earth developed its present-day structure and how similar processes may operate on other worlds.

The Goldschmidt Conference brings together researchers from around the world to share advances in geochemistry, cosmochemistry, and related fields. Parai will deliver the Paul W. Gast Lecture as part of the 2026 meeting.